Quotes from Steve Hagen

Give your mind a lot of space and it quiets down; try to control, quiet, or restrict it, and it goes wild.

To deny a concept is not to embrace its opposite.

All we ever find is the arising and ceasing of the world as it has come to be now. When you snap your fingers, it's already gone. All that persists is thus. Thus is not an object of mind but Mind Itself.

I'm not anything in particular. Nor are you. Nor is anyone.

Anything that can be grasped must … depend on other things for their validity. Hence, they are doubtful and perplexing. Doubt is just the flipside of belief.

The issues of what a self is, how long it will last, what will happen when our bodies decay and consciousness flickers off, are all based not on what we actually see but on what we imagine.

T]houghts will arise. Don't be bothered by them. Don't think they're bad or that you shouldn't be having them. … If you leave them alone, they'll depart of their own accord. This is how to 'cease all movements of the conscious mind.' You cannot do it by the direct application of your will.

Consciousness divides Reality. It conceptualises it, packages it, and explains it to itself. Then in our ignorance, we think it's taking readings on things 'out there.

As little children we readily accept the first story we're given at home, or school, or church. We're told stories of nationalism, religion, racism, politics, and family. All too often we accept them before we learn to weigh them against other views. And all too often we're inclined to accept these (or other) frozen views rather than see each situation for what it is.

All sorts of perplexing phenomena clear up when we abandon our deeply entrenched substantialist view.

You won't get Truth from the Buddha, or from a … Zen master … , or from a priest or monk or nun or teacher or guru. You won't receive Truth … from any other. (…) The only way to see Truth is by noticing if your mind is leaning.

Buddhism is not a belief system. It's not about accepting certain tenets or believing a set of claims or principles. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's about examining the world clearly and carefully, about testing everything and every idea. Buddhism is about seeing. It's about knowing rather than believing or hoping or wishing. It's also about not being afraid to examine anything and everything, including our own personal agendas.

We … habitually overlay our direct experience of Truth with thoughts – with beliefs and opinions and ideas.

To forget the self is to remember that we don't exist alone, but in relation to other people, to other creatures, to the planet, and to the universe.

When we just see … , the concept of non-existence doesn't occur. Our belief in non-existence arises only as a result of holding the notion of existence in the first place.

Ignorance is not the inability to see, but the act of ignoring what is really going on in favour of what we imagine.

I]deas and beliefs are frozen views – fragments of Reality, separated from the Whole.

We habitually act out of … thoughts and assumptions – most of which we're only vaguely aware of – rather than out of full engagement with the moment.

S]elfless action, action done while free of a sense of self. Action in which you don't see yourself as separate from other things.

When we talk about others, we should be very careful to observe our motive—especially if we're talking about a person who isn't present.

Relative truths are the day-to-day things and thoughts we can easily discuss, teach, sell, and conceptualise. … Each one depends on a vast multitude of other … relative truths for its existence – an existence which is, of course, conceptual.

To a buddha … there's no habitual overlaying of perceptual experience with concepts, … ideas, … beliefs, notions, pre-formed habits of thought, that are used to explain existence.

When we latch on to an identity, it's easy to take offence. But we offend ourselves. We lock ourselves into very rigid ways of seeing and thinking and reacting.

The buddha-dharma … is about directly seeing Truth, prior to forming any ideas about it. It is about responding to each particular situation as it comes … , not according to some … program of dos and don'ts.