Zen Proverbs

* Zen is selling water by the river.

* There's no meaning to a flower unless it blooms.

* A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died.
Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?'
'How do you not know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai.
'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered.


* Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish (your) opinions.

Hsin Hsin Ming

* If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

* In the landscape of spring, there is neither better nor worse. The flowering branches grow naturally, some long, some short.

* Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.

* The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear.

* The ways to the One are as many as the lives of men.

* Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.

* To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.

* To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.

* When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.

* Why do you ask questions? If you already knew the flame was fire then the meal was cooked a long time ago. (Oma Desala, Stargate SG-1; various)


* At first, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. Then, I saw mountains were not mountains and rivers were not rivers. Finally, I see mountains again as mountains, and rivers again as rivers.

* If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can't be solved.

* Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

* Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.

Basho

* An autumn night... don't think your life, didn't matter.

Basho

* There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

Basho

* At any given moment, I open my eyes and exist. And before that, during all eternity, what was there? Nothing.

Ugo Betti

* The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.

Chuang-tzu

* It is everywhere.

Chuang-tzu

* To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

Chuang-tzu

* If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Dogen

* Zazen is itself enlightenment.

Dogen

* The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Dogen

* There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.

Dogen

* And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

* When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.

Fen-Yang

* Should you desire great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

Hakuin

* Zen: Seeing into one's own nature.

Hui-neng

* How do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole?

koan

* It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

Muso Kokushi

* We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

Lao Tzu

* A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

* So little time, so little to do.

Oscar Levant

* The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.

Robert M. Pirsig

* The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

Yasutani Roshi

* The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Baba Ram Dass

* Natural and super-natural, temporal and eternal - continuums, not absolutes.

Albert Schweitzer (paraphrased)

* You must neither strive for truth nor seek to lose your illusions.

The Shodoka

* We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything. That is to understand Zen.

D. T. Suzuki

* One falling leaf is not just one leaf; it means the whole autumn.

* As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

Shunryu Suzuki

* Zen is not some kind of excitement, but merely concentration on our usual everyday routine.

Shunkyu Suzuki

* In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki

* The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

Shunryu Suzuki

* Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.

Shunryu Suzuki

* My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes.

Sayen Shaku

* To set up what you like against what you don't like -- this is the disease of the mind.

Sheng-ts'an

* No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today.

Sheng-ts'an

* Don't seek reality, just put an end to opinions.

Sheng-ts'an

* When you get there, there isn't any there there.

Gertrude Stein

* Water which is too pure has no fish.

Ts'ai Ken T'an

* Nothing is exactly as it seems, nor is it otherwise.

Alan Watts

* Let the dead bury the dead.

Jesus Christ

* What does mysticism mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.

Elie Wiesel

* Ten thousand flowers in spring

the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. Wu-men

* Since it is all too clear

It takes time to grasp it. When you understand that it's foolish to look for fire with fire, The meal is already cooked. Wu-men

* The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

* If you're attached to anything, you surely will go far astray.

* Only the crystal-clear question yields a transparent answer.

* All of the significant battles are waged within the self.

* Life is the only thing worth living for.

* Better to sit all night than to go to bed with a dragon.

* Live every day like your hair was on fire.

* When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing.

* The mind should be as a mirror.

* There is nothing infinite apart from finite things.

* Everyday life is the way.

* Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training.

* If you do not get it from yourself, Where will you go for it?

* Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw yourself from them.

* Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.

* Sitting peacefully doing nothing Spring comes and the grass grows all by itself.

* Everything the same; everything distinct.

* Lovely snowflakes, they fall nowhere else!

* Chop wood, carry water.

* Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook.

* A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.

* If you meet on the way a man who knows, Don't speak a word -- Don't keep silent!

* Even a good thing isn't as good as nothing.

* This is not the Buddha, this is the Buddha.

* One moon shows in every pool, in every pool the one moon.

* Studying Zen, learning the way, is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing.

* What do I mean by other things? Arousing the mind and stirring thoughts right now; having contrivance and artificiality; having grasping and rejecting; having practice and realization; having purity and defilement; having sacred and profane; having Buddhas and sentient beings; writing verses and songs, composing poems and odes; discoursing on Zen and the way; discoursing on right and wrong; discoursing on past and present.

* These various activities are not relevant to the issue of birth and death; they are all "other things."

Chien-ju

* No ego, no pain.

* When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

Freidrich Nietzsche