Quotes About Practice

In a Zen retreat we have a format for working with these quicksilver changes: we sit with them, we pay attention to them... Being steady with mindfulness as an anchor for all the changes we go through is the way we practice forbearance. And you can employ this same method anywhere anytime: just pay close attention to the details of what is going on internally and externally. Don't flinch, don't run away. Trust what happens. Take your stand there." (71)

Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect

Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment.

Arta este: des?vâr?irea activit??ii noastre - a voi într-un anume fel - potrivit unei idei - a voi ?i a f?ptui e aici acela?i lucru. Numai prin exersarea repetat? a activit??ii noastre, ce devine tot mai precis? ?i mai viguroas?, apare arta.

It is more satisfying to be a bad player at golf. The worse you play, the better you remember the occasional good shot.

This is an example of the effective method of 'transforming disturbances of meditation into objects of meditation' which will be treated later.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

Only a habit can subdue another habit.

You practice loving God by loving another human.

Master Hakuin emphasizes kufu in movement or practical training in Zen. He says, "To practice Zen in movement is superior to doing so in the stillness of meditation.

In disciplining ourselves to practice Zen in movement, we never cease to become mu with all our might or count the frequency of our respiration at all times and in all places just as we do when we are in meditation. Therefore, it is our ideal to train ourselves to attain immovability in movement. As I have been saying, however, even professional Zen monks cannot always practice Zen in movement except those endowed with the greatest capacities.

mosquito pupils." I do not know the exact meaning of the term, but it seems to mean those people who practice their arts only during the season when mosquitoes are plentiful.

After the passage of a given length of time, the jikijitsu again rings his bell once and claps his clappers twice. Then comes a short break of about ten minutes. Sometimes during this break kinhin (meditative walking) takes place in the meditation hall.

With regards to the methods of attaining the essence of religion, there are generally two types as described by Imazu Kogaku:1 the meditation type and the prayer type.

Therefore, in Zen one awakens to one's True Self and takes firm hold of it. To give life to one's True Self sufficiently in all the affairs of daily life and to practice living as a human being while purifying the entire world is perhaps the most complete way of saying it.

Some of you may practice zazen all alone at home with this book of mine as a guide. If you do, you must be well prepared for suffering. If there is no suffering, your sitting will be futile and you will find it difficult to continue zazen.

Why do they practice such quietistic and futile Zen just as you do? It is, after all, because they failed to meet any qualified teachers in the beginning and came to indulge themselves in the practice of various inauthentic kinds of Zen. They know nothing about kufu to achieve immovability in movement. They should indeed be called self-indulgent, unenlightened, stubborn, and dense stink bags and pseudo-Zen men.

our everyday life, filled with noise and lively activities of people, must be the most convenient dojo for kufu to practice Zen in movement.

At first the power of concentration nurtured during sitting for thirty minutes may be lost in an instant as soon as we stop sitting. But later we will be able to retain it for five or ten minutes by means of hoben and kufu.

The lay Zen Master Kawajiri Hogin also warns against this empty type of sitting: To begin with, most people who practice zazen consciously try to make themselves empty. This is a grave mistake because you have thoughts about becoming empty, and it is futile to sit however long you may try to do so.

Hogin further writes that by doing so "such a man practices zazen in the wrong way." Here lies the mistake of the believers of "no-thought and no-thinking." These people forget that the true meaning of the phrase comes alive when they become one with susoku and koan.