Quotes from Stephen Mitchell

The Mahaparinirvana Sutra says, "All things are impermanent. This is the law of appearing and disappearing. When appearing and disappearing disappear, then this stillness is bliss.

An audience will remember what it didn't expect to see (or read). From Action/ReAction: A unique and innovative technique for actors and the history of its origins...

So if you are thinking, words are very bad. But if you are not thinking, all words and all things that you can see or hear or smell or taste or touch will help you. So it is very important for you to cut off your thinking and your attachment to words.

Soen-sa said, The universe is infinite; all people are infinite. So the Bodhisattva's attachment is infinite. A Bodhisattva attachment is no attachment. No attachment is a Bodhisattva attachment.

You must understand what is in pain. Then you will understand Utmost Vehicle Zen, and see that everything in the universe is the truth.

What they had done as revenge was actually a blessing in the long run. In reality, nothing is as it seems to be through the filter of a fearful mind. Everything, even the most painful experience, turns out to be pure grace.

be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.

Para entender tu verdadera naturaleza, debes esperar el momento y las condiciones apropiadas. Cuando ese momento llega, te despiertas como si fuese de un sueño. Comprendes que lo que has descubierto te pertenece y que no proviene de ningún lugar externo. Aforismo budista

If you think the tea is dirty, it is dirty. If you think it is clean, it is clean.' He said, 'You're right. I will drink the tea.'" (Laughter.)

Considerando que, con todo el odio expulsado fuera [la mente] su inocencia radical recupera y descubre por fin que por sí misma es capaz de deleitarse, de apaciguarse, de amedrentarse, y que su propia y dulce voluntad es la voluntad del cielo.

If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.

Not until Gilgamesh gives up on transcendence can he realize how beautiful his city is; only then, freed from his restless heart, can he fully return to the place he started out from. Suppose that the city is this moment: things as they are, without any meaning added. When the mind gives up on its quest for control, order, and meaning, it finds that it has come home, to reality, where it has always been. What it has -- what it is -- in this very moment is everything it ever wanted.

May 22, 1975 No wall, no plant, no air, no sky Clinging to form Clinging to emptiness Stops the love We create this earth To teach us the love We are here on this earth To practice the love. Hae Mi

Considerando que, con todo el odio expulsado fuera [la mente] su inocencia radical recupera y descubre por fin que por sí misma es capaz de deleitarse, de apaciguarse, de amedrentarse, y que su propia y dulce voluntad es la voluntad del cielo. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

A misfortune is a blessing that has not yet been recognised.

The man who has come to this is the man who was here from the beginning. He does what he always did. Nothing has changed.

You've learned to play faithfulness in one key, but there are thousands of keys to play it in.

Zen teaching is like a window. At first, we look at it, and see only the dim reflection of our own face. But as we learn, and our vision becomes clear, the teaching becomes clear. Until at last it is perfectly transparent. We see through it. We see all things: our own face.

The brilliance of the moon, of fire, the brilliance that flames from the sun to illumine the entire world - this brilliance in truth is mine. Entering the earth, I support all beings by my life-giving power: becoming the nectar-filled moonlight. I cause plants and herbs to thrive.

One evening, after a Dharma talk at the Cambridge Zen Center, a student asked Seung Sahn Soen-sa, "What is love?" Soen-sa said, "I ask you: what is love?" The student was silent. Soen-sa said, "This is love." The student was still silent. Soen-sa said, "You ask me: I ask you. This is love.

seem to be an ideal, but in fact he is the realist here. The only thing that can interrupt happiness is an untrue thought. It's like a cloud hiding the sun. When we investigate it, it dissolves. Wisdom is the art of cloudlessness.

As unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth.

The less we cling to one side of reality—betting on either or or, arguing for for or against—the more we can be aware of the exquisite counterpoint of things. Everything matters: how we vote, how we tie our shoelaces, how we respond to the faintest whisper of a thought. And nothing matters, because (look!) it's already gone. When we understand this, we're home free.

The master competes with no one so, no one can compete with her.