Quotes from Thomas Cleary

So if you are going to look for a pearl, it is best to still the waves; it will be hard to find if you stir the water. When the water of concentration is still and clear, the pearl of mind reveals itself.

Because of barriers of knowledge, barriers of state, and barriers of action, seeing your own buddha nature is like seeing color at night.

In general, the practice of the Way involves blocking off errors, stopping them before they happen. It does not value self-approval, it values inability to do wrong.

Having one's will on the Tao is finding joy in the Tao; when one delights in the Tao, then one can practice the Tao.

If three people are travelling and one of them is confused, they can still get where they are going. That´s because the confused one is in the minority. If two of them are confused, they´ll have a hard time and won´t get there, because confusion prevails.

The gateway to the Tao is open - anyone can come in. If you know how to change directions, the goal is near at hand.

The Way returns the carved and the polished to simplicity.

Not diminishing the Way by the mind, not trying to help the divine by means of the human.

Artist and scholar, warrior and statesman, husband and father, ?a?rat 'Al? is a traditional model for chivalry, learning, and devotion.

Look for loyal ministers in homes with filial sons

The Buddhas speak the wondrous sound throughout the world; the Teachings spoken over countless ages can all be expounded in a single word.

The nobility of the ancients was no more than purity and serenity--what need for bushels of emblems?

The Buddha is like space, with no inherent nature; appearing in the world to benefit the living, his features and refinements are like reflections.

and then you would never be happy." 21. ?Yet We made them known to others thus, that they would know the promise of God is true, and that there can be no doubt about the end of time.

Everyone holds a luminous jewel, all embrace a precious gem; if you do not turn your attention around and look within, you will wander from home with a hidden treasure. Have you not heard it said, "In the ear it is like the great and small sounds in an empty valley, none not complete; in the eye it is like myriad images under a thousand suns, none able to avoid casting shadows"? If you seek it outside of sense experience, you will hinder the living meaning of Zen.

What has been long neglected cannot be restored immediately. Ills that have been accumulating for a long time cannot be cleared away immediately. One cannot enjoy oneself forever. Human emotions cannot be just right. Calamity cannot be avoided by trying to run away from it. Anyone working as a teacher who has realized these five things can be in the world without misery. letter

Emotion in the heart is like poison in a substance, like fire latent in reeds-one ought to be aware of this. Therefore, as superior people do their work, they do not feel exalted when given status, do not feel aggrandized when honored, do not pay attention when treated familiarly, do not become suspicious when treated with aloofness, and cannot be abased. Thus they cannot be moved by emotions.

Wisdom should control courtesy. Courtesy should control righteousness. Righteousness should control benevolence. Benevolence should control trustworthiness. Trustworthiness should control wisdom. When these five natures produce and control each other thus in a continuous circle, then no element of personality dominates; they all interact, balancing each other, resulting in completeness of the five natures.

68. ?And your Lord inspired the bee, "Make your houses in the mountains, in the trees, and in the buildings they construct: 69. ?"then eat from all the fruits, gently walking the pathways of your Lord." From within them exudes a drink of various colors, in it healing for humankind. Surely in that is a sign for people who reflect.

The Book of Five Rings and The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War are both written in Japanese, rather than the literary Chinese customary in elite bureaucratic, religious, and intellectual circles in Japan at the time.

?a?rat ("The Presence") 'Al?, who lived from 598 to 661 of the common era,

III. 23. ?Your Lord has decreed that you should worship only God, and be good to your parents. Whether one or both of them reaches old age with you, never speak to them harshly,

and do not rebuff them, but speak to them in kindly terms. 24. ?And lower the wing of humility to them out of compassion, and say,

Though We alarm them, yet it only increases their tremendous excess.