Quotes from Kenneth S. Leong

Impermanence is the way of reality. The world changes. We ourselves change. Change is the only truth. Therefore, to hold on to a fixed idea, concept, doctrine, or opinion is like committing spiritual suicide.

Zen people almost never talk about hell or sin. For the real problem is ignorance, especially ignorance about our true identity.

While a "don't-know mind" is alive and full of possibilities, a mind that claims to know is a closed and stagnant one.

Reality is neither good nor bad; it is a matter of how we choose to perceive it. For someone who has mastered the art of seeing, the world is always perfect. External reality does not have to change in order to make us happy. The secret lies in changing our perception of it.

As Catholic mystic Thomas Merton observed, "Everything that is, is holy." To see the truth of this statement is the beginning of an abundant life.

One of the most profound truths that Mahayana Buddhism teaches is that nirvana is samsara (the troubled world). [...] The same truth is expressed most beautifully in the Christian image of the Incarnation: God descends to reascend. There can be no ascension without descent. We must realize that Zen and Christianity are not telling two different stories but one story.

Jesus illustrated the principle of wu-wei beautifully in his Nature Sermon. The wild birds neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet they are fed; the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin, yet they are clothed. Wu-wei is not about being lazy and doing nothing. Rather, it is about following the way of nature and not wasting energy. It is about the beauty of "letting it be"!

To do God's will is simply to surrender our ego and accept what is. It is to develop a nonviolent approach to life: to recognize and accept our weaknesses and limitations, to be friendly with the universe instead of fighting against it, to accept that there are things that we simply cannot control or predict.

T]hose who are always trying to control everything and eliminate all uncertainties are miserable. For they are fighting against nature. On the other hand, those who come to accept uncertainties as inevitable live lives of peace.

Disappointment is the fast track to enlightenment because it accelerates our coming to terms with reality.

Truth is like life in that we cannot freeze it without killing it.

Intellectually, we all know that we cannot avoid death. But for most people, there is usually a wide discrepancy between between intellectual reality and psychological reality. Psychologically, we tend to deny death. [...] Recognizing the reality of death psychologically and not just intellectually is an important part of spiritual awakening.

Carrying water and chopping wood are just as much spiritual practices as reading scriptures.

Enlightenment is not an achievement; it is just the seeing of reality as it is. In fact, nirvana is simply what is. We have been staring at it all our lives, and yet so few of us get it. The fact is that life is at the same time lamentable and beautiful. When we realize this humorous and absurd beauty of life, what can we do but to burst into laughter?

Compassion is not a matter of charity, pity, or sympathy. It is a result of seeing the interconnectedness of all things and recognizing that this is a participatory universe in which we are all one.

But in order to look, one has to start with a beginner's mind that carries no preconceptions or presumptions. The beginner's mind looks to find out what is new; it does not look to confirm.

The point of Zen is not to defy reason but to recognize the limitations of rationality.

Zen calls our attention to the wonders of the ordinary. There is a hidden dimension of beauty, richness, and harmony in the common world surrounding us, but we seldom take notice. Zen tries to stimulate our sensitivity to these natural wonders and hence to recover the joy in our daily lives.

In the Parable of the Great Banquet, many of those who failed to share the joy of the feast were ordinary people who were simply too busy with their future-oriented life. As the invitation came, they ignored it and went off to tend their everyday business. Like most people, they felt that it is more important to make a living than to go to a feast and make merry. In a word, they are too "serious.

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.

I renounced what I considered to be my Christian faith at around age seventeen, not without fear and trembling. I found the idea of using God as a crutch totally distasteful. I preferred to be on my own. In hindsight I now see that my apparent abandonment of "faith" has actually paved the way for real faith. Sometimes, it is necessary to tear down the old so that the new can be built.

The fact of life is that the appreciation of true beauty cannot start without total renunciation. [...] But to live beautifully, one needs an unfettered mind, a mind that is not clogged up with all kinds of attachments, opinions, or fossilized ways of looking at things. There is no need to get rid of anything as long as we can sever our attachments to it.

Every day is a good day" does not mean hitting the jackpot everyday. Nor does it mean getting a promise from God or Buddha. Rather it refers to the blissful state in which one can accept reality totally and unconditionally.

A sure sign of false faith is its militant stance. While true faith is marked by its gentleness to all aspects of life, false faith can be easily identified by its stubbornness, inflexibility, paranoia, and a desperate need to be right.