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Zen Quotes

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Zen Quotes

“While the mainstream Western mind visualizes the good and the evil as two opposite forces, each attempting to annihilate the other, the Taoists envision them as interdependent and complementary. The yin-yang is the primordial symbol for creative tension, without which life and growth are not possible, This understanding that the opposites are complementary is essential to Zen's gentle attitude toward life.”

Zen
Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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“Zen means the truth that is revealed through simple living. In the acquisitive society, we tend to have too many personal possessions, responsibilities, engagements, and entertainments. The big secret is that our quality of life has deteriorated because we are crushed by the weight of all these. There is so much to do and so little time to do it! Our situation is not unlike going on a tour where the tourist guide has scheduled too many sites to visit. Instead of increasing our enjoyment of the tour, the cramming actually diminishes it.”

Zen
Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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“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.”

MindSpiritualityConsciousnessMeditationAwarenessPerceptionMindfulnessThoughtsAwakeningZen
Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“We do not need an ashram or church, some secret initiation, a guru’s blessing, or an intentional community. As helpful or supportive as those may be at times, ultimately, what we need is the willingness to look at ourselves honestly, to feel what emotions lie within us, to acknowledge our thoughts and actions, to choose to be aware of what we ignore or suppress, and to let go of what limits and distracts us so we can open ourselves fully to the truth of life in this moment.”

MindSpiritualityConsciousnessMeditationAwarenessPerceptionMindfulnessThoughtsAwakeningZen
Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“Our perception of reality is not reality itself, but it is the lens through which we view reality. It is like looking outside through a stained-glass window—if we look through red glass, the outside world will appear to be red; if we look through blue glass, the outside world will appear to be blue. The outside world isn’t changing, we are just observing it through different colors of glass, which make it appear to have the same color as whatever color glass that we look through.”

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Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“All human beings throughout the world are conditioned. It is an obvious and undeniable fact. Yet, many of us are unaware of this fact of our conditioning. We are unaware of the ways in which our culture influences our minds and shapes our perception of reality. We do not realize that most of our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs are not really our own, but were simply inherited by our family and the society that we were raised in.”

MindSpiritualityConsciousnessMeditationAwarenessPerceptionMindfulnessThoughtsAwakeningZen
Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“We all have only one true emotional need as human beings, and that is the need to feel loved. The majority of our actions aim towards this goal in one way or another. We seek relationships, we seek fame or success, we act (or don’t act) in certain ways simply because we feel the need to be accepted, the need to be recognized, the need to feel loved. This is a very powerful thing to realize.”

MindSpiritualityConsciousnessMeditationAwarenessPerceptionMindfulnessThoughtsAwakeningZen
Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“The psychological suffering of human beings on such a mass scale manifests as the physical suffering we see and experience in the world today. It is ignorant to objectify this suffering as if it were something outside of us, belonging only to the world and to those unfortunate beings who experience it. It is within each one of us, and to acknowledge our suffering is the only way to start to heal it, and by healing the suffering within ourselves, we help to heal the suffering of the world.”

MindSpiritualityConsciousnessMeditationAwarenessPerceptionMindfulnessThoughtsAwakeningZen
Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“If you have ever watched a football game, you will likely recall that while the game is being played, there is a commentator who is narrating the plays of the game and making interpretations. Our thoughts are just like this. In our mind, we have the direct experience and we have the commentator that narrates and describes our direct experience. The commentator of a football game isn’t really necessary, and he doesn’t affect the activity of the game in any way. He is just describing the game to the audience, and doing so from his perspective, with his own opinions, based on his mood, memory, education, past experiences and so on. In ourselves, the commentator is also unnecessary, and does not change the experience that it is commenting on. It merely describes it from its own biased perspective, with its own opinions, based on its mood, memory, education, past experiences, and so on. Our problem is that we have mistaken the comments of the commentator for the reality that is being commented on. We have confused our own identity as being that of the commentator, and we believe that what is being described is actually the truth of reality.”

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Book:Awake to What Is: Discovering Peace in the Present Moment
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“We have been conditioned to treat rationality as sacred. But life itself is, in a very deep sense, absurd. It will not render itself to the tyranny of reason. Even the most wise cannot help but be flabbergasted by a three-year-old who keeps asking why. If you are not convinced, try asking yourself what is the reason for living. Life is basically a mystery that is not meant to be solved by our intellect. It cannot be "known" through the brain but through the heart.”

Zen
Book:The Zen Teachings of Jesus
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“When you listen to the sound of waves at the beach, you feel relaxed because your mind doesn’t have to agree, disagree or judge that sound. Human beings are nothing but waves of five elements. Why does your mind go in overdrive when their sounds fall in your ear? You will feel tremendously relaxed when you stop agreeing. disagreeing or judging every human sound that falls in your ears.”

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Author:Shunya
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“Your mind is like a device you are wearing. Play with it instead of being played by it. You can easily play with one setting of this device: Focus. Focus only when required. At home, you are relaxed. But your mind is narrowly focussed on TV, fridge, phone and bed. De-focus and take in the whole surrounding. Feel the air touching your skin. hear so many sounds reaching your ears, sit on the floor and see your room without focussing on particular objects.”

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Author:Shunya
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