Best Zen Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Still Breathing

“And I have known meditators filled with doubt and self-condemnation when the practice has been stormy. Practicing with our best effort during periods of crisis and personal struggle may not bring about spiritual highs. It may, however, bring something more important: a strengthening of the inner qualities that sustain a spiritual life for the long term: mindfulness, persistence, courage, compassion, humility, renunciation, discipline, concentration, faith*, acceptance, and kindness.”

Life Inspirational Healing Strength Buddhism Mindfulness Zen Well Being Self Compassion

Book:The Issue at Hand: Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice

Source: The Issue at Hand: Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice

“There is no greater force of amiability, or ability, Than to have strength combined with flexibility.”

Ability Strength Achievement Capacity Zen Flexibility Yin And Yang Adversity Strength Achievement Amiability Capability Of Creativity

Book:The Tao of Physical and Spiritual

Source: The Tao of Physical and Spiritual

“Too lazy to be ambitious, I let the world take care of itself. Ten days' worth of rice in my bag; a bundle of twigs by the fireplace. Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment? Listening to the night rain on my roof, I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”

Philosophy Poetry Buddhism Poem Zen Buddhist Poems Japan Monk Japanese Seers Philosophers Hermit Ryokan Zen Monk

Author:Ryokan

“A big group of daily friends or a white painted house with bills and mirrors, are not a necessity to me—but an intelligent conversation while sharing another coffee, is.”

Joy Meditation Friends Conversation Yoga Intelligent Bills Coffee Zen Present Thankful Minimalism Give Thanks

Author:Charlotte Eriksson

“We become so absorbed in our flaws and faults that we forget that it is better to be a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. To have flaws is beauty in itself, a fact so frightening that we hurry to hide them from sight and tarnish the whole in the process of comparing ourselves to others.”

Inspirational Philosophy Wisdom Motivational Spiritual Peace Zen

Book:Purple Buddha Project: Purple Book of Self-Love

Source: Purple Buddha Project: Purple Book of Self-Love

“Pain is inevitable, yet suffering is optional. It is our heart connections that make all the difference. When we experience mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual pain – love is the one medicine that transcends any synthetic or organic drug we use to suppress pain.”

Source: Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life

“The French don’t valorize a pregnant woman’s anxiety. Instead, in the word cloud of French pregnancy, terms like serenity, balance, and Zen keep popping up. Mothers-to-be are supposed to signal their competence by showing how calm they are and by making it clear that they still experience pleasure. This small shift in emphasis makes a big difference.”

Pleasure Balance Calm Zen Woman Pregnant Serenity Competence French

Book:Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

Source: Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

“Pleasure reflects something deeper than itself. It is an echo of greater possibilities.”

Joy Spirit Pleasure Buddhism Depth Zen Bliss

Book:The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation

Source: The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation

“Pleasure reflects something deeper than itself.”

Joy Spirit Religion Pleasure Buddhism Depth Zen Bliss

Book:The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation

Source: The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation

“Remain undisturbed.”

Simple Zen Stoic

Author:Maxime Lagacé

“Water your plants and your job is done for today.”

Success Simple Zen

Author:Maxime Lagacé

“If you chase something, it goes. If you stop, it comes.”

Happiness Simple Zen

Author:Maxime Lagacé

“Who we are now is all that really matters.”

Inspirational Philosophy Zen

Book:The Academie

Source: The Academie

“The object of your desire is not an object.”

Desire Objects Zen

Book:Words Are Not Things

Source: Words Are Not Things

“Then we’re just sitting there, staring at each other. Which has been happening a lot lately. It’s like whatever wall there was between us, however she was holding herself back from me . . . all of that pretense is gone. “And when you find a soul mate,” Sara says, “it’s undeniable. You have to be together.” “That’s my philosophy.” I look back at her. “You have to go with the flow.” “Exactly. I think the universe guides you to make the right choices.” “Do you believe in fate?” “I guess, but . . . it’s more about creating the life you want so you can make that fate a reality. You know?”

Love Life Philosophy Relationships Fate Zen

Author:Susane Colasanti

“Being undone, we discover we’ve been fooled by wishing wells and have mistaken the fire of desire for radiance.”

Wisdom Desire Enlightenment Transformation Insight Awakening Zen Repentance Zen Buddhism Newness

Book:The Deepest Peace: Contemplations from a Season of Stillness

Source: The Deepest Peace: Contemplations from a Season of Stillness

“Reality is at least a billion trillions times less malleable than our desires.”

Want Life Reality Desire Spirituality Buddhism Yoga Zen Desires Wants

Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Strong souls face painful tragedies because the universe honours their strength by pulling out its most fearsome weapons against them.”

Life Mind Soul Philosophy Pain Religion Spirituality Universe Buddhism Zen

Author:Shunya

“The only path wide for us all is love.”

“Now, if you open the treasure chest of desire, what do you find there? What do all the desires have in common? You. Go ahead and stop here and test it for a few days if you are really serious about the question. After you get past the first thousand, you begin to enter into a subtle territory, known as the border between desire and yearning. Or, if you want, between answers and questions. The defining quality, or essence, of desire is that it is engaged as if it were an answer.”

Source: Re:

“If you are ready to accept things as they are, you will receive them as old friends, even though you appreciate them with new feeling.”

Emotion Acceptance Enlightenment Zen Contentment Feeling Familiarity Receptivity

Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

“I discovered that those who seldom dwell on their emotions know better than anyone else just what an emotion is.”

Emotion Zen John Cage

Author:John Cage

“When we like something too much, a part of us wants to keep them forever in our 'wishlist' because we know that when wishes comes true, they lose their charm.”

Life Mind Soul Philosophy Pain Religion Spirituality Universe Buddhism Zen

Author:Shunya

“If you lack open communication and honesty in your life – It’s time to look within. Are you someone who handles heavy, emotional, or tough information well or do you often get excessively agitated, upset, or depressed? My rule of thumb is that no topic ‘should’ ever be off limits with a loved one. That is the goal to work towards. The point being, if you’re easy to talk to, people will talk to you! If you’re not, then they won’t!”

Source: Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life

“Conflict forces us to be fully present because it shatters our ego – stripping away all hope of escape or sugar coating. It removes everything that is nonessential to our authentic being; it removes all superficial layers. Conflict is painful because it wakes us up out of our created illusions. And if we lean into it, conflict can be the catalyst to our enlightenment.”

Inspirational Wisdom Truth Spiritual Growth Consciousness Psychology Honesty Conflict Ego Enlightenment Inner Peace Zen Authentic Self Conflict Resolution Illusions Sugarcoating

Author:Alaric Hutchinson

“True strength. There is no conflict with vulnerability or humility. Indeed, vulnerability and humility are essential here, and ultimately what makes strength true. One does not don the mask of strength in response to fear, which is a con, like those crazy small reptiles that stand up on their hind legs and spread useless wings to intimidate as a last resort. You stand there in self-respect for Christ’s sake and take it with some courage, responding in accordance with your honest values, taking sincere responsibility for them. Stand up for who you truly are, not the image you would like to sell, nor shrink to fit into the false harmony around you.”

Source: Re:

“I have found so many angels trapped inside undisputed jargon that I find myself digging at the words, in order to release them, from the books that unfairly captured their soul.”

“If you have seen everything in life, you want to say to people, "Cut the drama and come to the point." But for people, drama is the point. A point is useless to them if it doesn't provide drama.”

Life Mind Soul Philosophy God Wisdom Religion Spirituality Buddhism Zen

Author:Shunya

“Human beings are makers, usually of a mountain out of a molehill.”

Spirituality Imagination Buddhism Gratitude Civilization Mindfulness Adversity Zen Peace Of Mind Stoicism

Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The infinite possibilities that exist in any given moment cause infinite possibilities in response. The wording is correct here; the possibilities exist already, and have already caused the existing possibilities of response.”

Source: Re:

“The ability to remain constant, whole and playful, even while working technically, concentrating and upholding urgency, is essential to achieve a state of balance that will allow for this to happen. This has to come to life, and cannot stay just an idea or hope or intention or imitation, or ignored. The guarantee and proof that this balance and power is real is in its actualization. That is, that it manifests in functional reality. As in any intention, whether that be vague or specific, an ambition or desire, a goal or state of being, a question or hope, a curiosity or purpose, there exist natural and unnatural obstacles to its realization.”

Source: Re:

“Sometimes I wonder how much of our suffering we allow or impose on ourselves simply in search of our worthiness to accept our own respect and appreciation.”

Source: Re:

“Life will give you what you need once you will do something with it. It may not give you what you want so as to be as comfortable as you want, as Nature’s concern is need as it relates to evolution. In my humble opinion, Nature is too kind, but, as I say, the game is big, and the challenges and temptations absolute. And this is a fascinating aspect of the totality of beauty; it gives more than is only necessary. The generosity is mind- and heart boggling.”

Source: Re:

“Sometimes I wonder how much of our suffering we allow or impose on ourselves simply in search of our worthiness to accept our own respect and appreciation. I’d written before some years ago that we often cause suffering in another so that we can then love them, as in, “You have suffered for me, so I can love you now.” The eventual shock of realizing the sacrifice made for you destroys the walls of self-righteousness and protection. The suffering sacrifice of another creates the willingness and capacity to do the same. Finally, love and respect (respect is part of the body of love) come from the recognition of something else already given up for them. Within the individual, you or me, a similar process takes place toward oneself. It is as if we know some- where that we are not worthy of our own love or respect until we have earned the right to it, and that is mainly through some kind of suffering. That suffering may be generic, as in a life lived in which tragedy after tragedy accumulate, or it may be specific, as in the constant sacrifice of other easier things for a being or vision. Or, perhaps more correctly, it is either consciously chosen or not.”

Source: Re:

“One could make a nice link between imagination and spirit. To make that link, all we need is some inspiration. Essentially, imagination has the innate potential to compel or inspire and to set in motion causation. That’s why it exists.”

Source: Re:

“Preceding the birth of every religion, there was someone who was an incarnation of this process: imagination causes inspiration causes intuition causes beauty, which causes imagination…the dynamic that takes place in the dimension of spirit. That is, for whatever reasons that will remain mysterious, although they are suggested in various schools of thought, someone got the cause thing down right, and the rest flowed. After the fact, an effort was made, almost always by others, to control both the impact of this and the possible benefits from it. Ambition and desire took over. Where you had an exact presentation, or manifestation, of beauty and truth, somebody began using it for other purposes.”

Source: Re:

“If your curiosity reaches a breaking point (compelled actually means that you only have the remaining choice to act on it, having tried all the other options before), and becomes fascination with mystery or truth, you find what you need. Maybe it’s a person, maybe it’s a tragedy, maybe it’s an explosive recognition that, “My God, I’m still alive.”

Source: Re:

“It takes a relative amount of courage just to get out of bed each day. There are those who are stronger in their courage, and they help to compel us along a little further in the fulfillment of our faith.”

Source: Re:

“My take on personal evolution is largely about the spirit of connecting and disconnecting things, relating to what I call “the gap” or time and space between things. It is also about becoming practical in all this, developing the power and precision to simply bring the grand ideas home, to compress the paradigm of perception/choice/action/result into a single gesture.”

Source: Re:

“What you have to do to achieve what you want necessitates the creative actualization of the totality of your being as it is. Nothing more, but also nothing less.”

Source: Re:

“The seed of all this is imagination. But when you think of imagination, it helps to view it more as it exists in the rest of nature, rather than as we tend to see it in humans. That is, that imagination is actual and a need, immediately searches for expression, and con- sequently, is intimately connected to yearning and its instantaneous application. This is also the case in human beings, but we generally associate it with unnecessary, or extra, expression, such as an ability to make something more attractive or stimulating (the current view of art, for example), or the creative use of “free time” (time left over after you have done what you had to do).”

Source: Re:

“In an animal’s or a plant’s expression of imagination (let’s leave out the rest for now, so we don’t have to deal with the question of consciousness in, for example, minerals), there is always purity in the connection between need and evolution. That which is created is a response to reality and very specific, essential concerns. This then is the origin of the union between what is so and mysterious harmony—truth and beauty. The bridge between them is inspired intuition and the actions it causes. Or, imagination causes inspiration causes intuition causes beauty, which then causes imagination again…”

Source: Re:

“The exact proportion and combination of the qualities within you, as they are, even while you search and struggle for them to be different or better, is a unique beauty.”

Source: Re:

“Of course, the self-righteous demand and expectation for love, and exactly how it should be expressed, is not the most streamlined method for producing it in another for you. That is, it does not compel or create the love itself. You’re neither loving nor producing that which would compel the love toward you. You’re compressed between them both and incapable of accepting either. And rightly so. Which then accelerates the accumulating suffering.”

Source: Re:

“The composite of what you know to do—that which compels you, that which you are naturally already drawn to, that which exploits the unique potentials inside you, that which you know you are capable of doing, that which will build a bridge between imagination and reality—causes a relationship that obliges sacrifice.”

Source: Re:

“Because as you become better at everything, as the innate skills actually manifest in reality, the bar rises for the next jump. The core demand for evolution is relentless, and respect, happiness, love and joy are irrevocably tied to it.”

Source: Re:

“One of the great images to come down to us through Zen Buddhism is the encounter between an enlightened master and an advanced apprentice during the course of a shared meal. The apprentice, becoming fed up with the stress and waiting and the master’s apparent disregard for him, demands an explanation without complication of exactly how to become enlightened. The master asks, “Have you finished your rice?” “Yes,” says the apprentice. “Then go wash your bowl.”

Source: Re:

“We are 100 percent individual and 100 percent a member of the community.”

Peace Community Buddhism Unity Individuality Zen Emptiness Uniqueness Nonduality Interdependence

Book:The Truth of This Life: Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is

Source: The Truth of This Life: Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is

“Even the truth is just a mere thought.”

Thinking Philosophy Truth Science Spirituality Yoga Zen Mysticism No Mind No Duality

Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana