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Zen Quotes

Browse 1609 quotes about Zen.

Zen Quotes

“People have lost faith in God and the Kingdom of God because they have put God in the wrong place. If they put God in the right place, in their own heart, the spiritual crisis will come to an end. This is a spiritual and a cultural matter. In the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions there are people who have discovered that God does not belong to the future or to another place.”

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Book:Enjoying the Ultimate: Commentary on the Nirvana Chapter of the Chinese Dharmapada
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“— Non ha importanza se si fanno errori. Però fate le cose con cura. Ogni piccolo movimento, fatelo con cura, mettendoci l'anima. «L'anima» è una cosa astratta, che non si può vedere con gli occhi. La guardavo dubbiosa: non si può mica dire: «Ecco, l'ho messa», come se si mettesse del riso in una ciotola.”

InspirationalZen
Book:Ogni giorno è un buon giorno: Quindici gioie che il tè mi ha insegnato
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“Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.”

WisdomAwarenessEnlightenmentZen
Book:Dokusan With Dogen: Timeless Lesson In Negotiating The Way
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“I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on the sun’s warmth. It was a good day. There were many things to think about, but in this moment, I wanted to embrace my surroundings and enjoy them. Sometimes the little things were the best parts of life, and they were always there in front of us, waiting to be noticed.”

ZenPeace Of MindComing Of AgeIntrospectionDeep ThoughtsIndie AuthorIndie BooksEnjoy The MomentBildungsroman
Book:A Most Important Year
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“What has always struck me about every Zen master I've met and every Zen book I've read is the sense of humor. Mindfulness in practice is not endlessly silent as much as it is delightfully playful. Presence and connection come with a pinch of sassiness that allows us to return to our inner child in authenticity and lightness.”

JoySpiritualityMeditationMindfulnessZenInner ChildPlayfulnessLightness Of Being
Book:Bullshit-Free Mindfulness: An Uncommon Guide for Joy in Everyday Life
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“Le Zen sous-entend que l'on suive e mouvement de la vie, sans valoir ni l'arrêter ni interrompre son cours. C'est la raison pour laquelle on le définit quelquefois comme « un chemin sans détours », ou un « le fait d'aller droit devant soi ». Une telle attitude suppose une compréhension immédiate des choses en tant que vie et mouvement et non simplement en tant que sensations et concepts, lesquels ne sont que les symboles morts d'une réalité vivante. POur cette raison, Takuan commente l'arte de l'escrime (kendo) -- un art profondément imprégné des principes zen -- en ces termes: « Cette qualité, qu'on peut désigner par l'attitude mentale de ''non-ingérence'', constitue l'élément le plus vital tant dans l'art de l'escrime, que dans le Zen. Si deux actions sont distantes, même de l'épaisseur d'un cheveu, il y a interruption. » Lorsqu'on tape dans ses mains, le son se dégage immédiatement. Le son n'attend, ni ne pense avant de sortir. Il n'y a aucun état intermédiaireL un mouvement succède à un autre, sans l'intervention du mental conscient. Si vous êtes indécis et si vous réfléchissez à ce qu'il convient de faire, au moment où votre adversaire est prêt à vous abattre, vous lui laissez la place, c'est-à-dire la possibiliité de vous porter un coup fatal. Que votre défense suive l'attaque, sans intervalle, et il n'y aura pas deux mouvements séparés appelés attaque et défense.”

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Book:The Spirit of Zen
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“I meant: what do I want to do now, who do I want to be now? And I look at these questions from the perspective of someone with twenty years left, or twenty-five, whatever, of active public life, and I have no ambitions, none, I don’t want to prove anything to anybody, I don’t want to convince the world of anything anymore, I don’t want to work. I want to be as peaceful as possible and think and read and maybe write a little, just journals and notes, you know, like a blog. But on paper. I’ll tell no one about it.”

AmbitionZenRestRat Race
Book:Crazy Sorrow
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“When I listen to that distant call [of the cuckoo], I become freshly aware of a sense of oneness with everything that exists. At such moments I come to see that everything is flowing together like a timeless river, and I become thoroughly convinced of this reality. The invisible becomes clearer than the visible, and the eternal becomes closer than the present. ,,, One of the tragedies of modernity is that artificial sounds are making it impossible to hear the sounds of eternity. They are cutting off the sounds that come from within the deepest part of us.”

TimeNatureBuddhismEternityZenModernityRevelationZen BuddhismSounds Of Life
Book:The Sound of Water, The Sound of Wind: And Other Early Works by a Korean Monk
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“Much of the contemporary American atheistic movement seems to be treating atheism like a new kind of religion. ... It's just that some atheists are so damn evangelical about their nonreligion they might as well be ringing doorbells and handing out leaflets.”

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Book:There Is No God and He Is Always with You: A Search for God in Odd Places
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“She often found herself caught in a rapture for minutes at a time, sometimes longer. But someone observed that she was never enraptured while she was cooking breakfast. If she were, she might burn it. Eternity can dovetail into our practical lives. It's possible for us to manage the toast and the rapture.”

PoetryReligionSpiritualityZenCreative WritingShadow Work
Book:Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection
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“As Hsiang-yen put it, "There's no use for artificial discipline, For, move as I will, I manifest the ancient Tao." At this level, human life is beyond anxiety, for it can never make a mistake. If we live, we live; if we die, we die; if we suffer, we suffer; if we are terrified, we are terrified. There is no problem about it. A Zen master was once asked, "It is terribly hot, and how shall we escape the heat?" "Why not," he answered, "go to the place where it is neither hot nor cold?" "Where is that place?" "In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver." In Zen one does not feel guilty about dying, or being afraid, or disliking the heat. At the same time, Zen does not insist upon this point of view as something which one ought to adopt; it does not preach it as an ideal. For if you don't understand it, your very not-understanding is also IT. There would be no bright stars without dim stars, and, without the surrounding darkness, no stars at all.”

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Author:Allan W. Watts
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“You must force yourself to be patient, but in constancy there is no particular effort involved--there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they are. For people who have no idea of emptiness, this ability may appear to be patience, but patience can actually be non-acceptance.”

WisdomAcceptanceCommitmentPatienceLoyaltyZenConstancy
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
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“The correct attitude is one where you have no more time to waste. This means that everything is oriented toward the now. The correct attitude is that there is no such thing as an awakening that happens tomorrow. Tomorrows never come. The time is now. You must be sincere. Sincerity and earnestness are the most beneficial attitudes to have. (p. 109)”

EnlightenmentAwakeningZenBe Here NowThe Power Of NowAdyashanti
Book:The Impact of Awakening: Excerpts from the Teachings of Adyashanti
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“As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back, you have not taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means that you stand free of making demands on others and on life to make you happy. When you discover yourself to be nothing but Freedom, you stop setting up conditions and requirements that need to be satisfied in order for you to be happy. It is in the absolute surrender of all conditions and requirements that Liberation is discovered to be who and what you Are. Then the love and wisdom that flows out of you have a liberating effect on others. (p. 119)”

EnlightenmentAwakeningZenLiberationAdyashanti
Book:The Impact of Awakening: Excerpts from the Teachings of Adyashanti
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