Quotes About Serenity

Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything.

It will take quite a long time before you find your calm, serene mind in your practice.

Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble. You yourself make the waves in your mind. If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm. This mind is called big mind.

W]hen your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life itself is enlightenment.

After the wand stops I see a flower falling. Because of the singing bird I find the mountain calmness.

Zen is nothing to get excited about.

When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything.

When you know everything, you are like a dark sky. Sometimes a flashing will come through the dark sky. After it passes, you forget all about it, and there is nothing left but the dark sky. The sky is never surprised when all of a sudden a thunderbolt breaks through. And when the lightning does flash, a wonderful sight may be seen. When we have emptiness we are always prepared for watching the flashing.

So even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way.

You know how to rest physically. You do not know how to rest mentally.

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.

Patience is never served on the platter...

Remember the time to relax is when you don't have time to relax.

Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one's level of peace of mind.

I had always found comfort in the leaves, in their silence. They were like a parchment that holds words of wisdom. Simply holding them in my hand gave me some of the peace a tree possesses. To be like that-to just be-that's the most noble thing of all.

Sometimes just being still is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Ho pensato che se tu avessi parlato con Arseni, io ti avrei certo ucciso, ecco Ernestina. Ma con una calma grande, l'ho pensato, forse, neanche di questo mondo, devi credermi. Ho pensato al silenzio degli alberi, dell'acqua, e avrei voluto che anche tu fossi tutta silenzio, come loro...

Hic Habitat Felicitas—Happiness Dwells Here.

The bedroom is the one place you can truly be yourself.

For lonely people, rain is a chance to be touched.

And he is enchanted by the beauty of small things: hot coffee, wind through an open window, the tapping of rain, a passing bicycle, the desolation of snow on a winter's day.

The key to a good life is to gently overlook the truth

Music is my drug, the one thing that makes me numb.

Don't worry, look out the window and enjoy the view.