Zen proverbs
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- 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.
- 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.
- When you reach the top, keep climbing.
- 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)
- A river too pure, yields no fish.
- 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.
- No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today - Sheng-ts'an
- 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.
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.
Western Koan
- 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.
- If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
- 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.
