Quotes About Enlightenment

there are large number of people—so-called believers—who misunderstand the concept of "no-thought and no-thinking" (Jpn. munen muso).

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.

Thinking that a koan is something to be thought about and solved objectively is out of keeping with Zen teachings.

Wisdom originates in samadhi is what this sutra teaches us.

It is said that there are as many as one thousand seven hundred koan. They are classified according to the specific styles of the different schools in which they have been employed. In our School of Tekisui, koan problems are generally classified into hosshin (The body of Dharma), kikan (dynamism), gonsen (verbal expression), nanto (difficulty in passing through), kojo (stage of refinement), and matsugo no rokan (the final gate).

As long as we make the Truth and the Absolute our primary objects without transcending the duality of subject and object, we are not said to be in zazen, even if we formally sit in strict conformity to its requirements.

Just as in the phrase jyo-e enmyo (full and clear perception in the wisdom of concentration), jyo (concentration) necessarily gives birth to e (wisdom) and e (wisdom) must be based on jyo (concentration).

Where were you facing yesterday?" "Well, my nose doesn't hurt a bit today." This answer must have highly pleased Baso. He praised Hyakujo, saying, "Now you understand. You know about today very well." He meant that Hyakujo truly realized the whereabouts of life.

Otherwise, no matter how clear our perception, it is nothing but worldly knowledge and discriminating knowledge and can never be called wisdom.

Seeing one's true self-nature in itself is samadhi, and samadhi in itself is seeing one's true self-nature.

In Master Shibayama Zenkei's Rinzai Zen no Seikaku,72 the styles of the Soto sect and the Rinzai sect are respectively described as honkaku (original awakening) and shikaku (primal awakening). He writes, "It may be said that, as similar as they are, they are different. Rinzai Zen principally stresses discipline for enlightenment, whereas Soto Zen is principally concerned with discipline for descent from the height of enlightenment.

Ashikaga Takauji41 had an evil reputation as a traitor, but it is said that he sat zazen for some time every night and never failed to engage in this daily practice even when he became intoxicated. I think this should be a lesson to students of Zen.

think that what Master Hakuin means by his words "beyond dualism" is that it is not only we, who transcend such playful dualism, but also all other things in their own no self-nature that are in operation according to their selfless essence.

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.

Nirvana is not pessimistic or negative like going to one's death the way most people think of it. Rather, it means gaining eternal life and entering the state of absolute security.

nirvana, which is another name for samadhi.

Hearing this, Master Eno scolded Shisei, "To calm the mind and contemplate is a Zen disease and not Zen. To what avail is it in principle to sit for a long time and suffer physical pain?

This operating power of our minds is called joriki. It is, in short, the operation of no-self. Master Sogaku writes about it as follows, "The right mind operates at each time and in each place to make you take the right attitude and act properly without deviating from the Way.

The concrete methods of adjusting the mind are called susoku-kan and koan kufu21 in Japanese.

Zen Master Dogen said that to transmit Dharma means to transmit zazen.

it goes without saying that since time immemorial it has been forbidden to practice Zen as a means of accomplishing some purpose or other, for Zen should be without purposes and without acquisitions.

Zazen should never become a means of making yourself feel good nor should it be a tranquilizer to settle excitement and wild thoughts. What is of primary importance is what the ancients called "no gaining and no merit." Indeed, zazen consists in awakening us to our own essence so as to secure and express our true selves in our everyday conduct.

As we become advanced in meditation, sometimes phenomena appear during our meditation. Some of them are favorable while others are not. As a whole, they have always been called makyo (disturbing conditions). For

But when we break through that delusion, the illusion caused by selfish desires and doubt, and come into contact with the Absolute for a fraction of a second, we realize our original True Self. This experience is called satori or kensho.12 In short, this is awakening to one's True Self. It may be said that the aim of Zen is to have that kind of experience.