Quotes About Wisdom

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.

This Fourfold Wisdom corresponds to the eight consciousnesses with which we are originally one. The samadhi of Mahayana Buddhism is considered to be the only way of turning the eight consciousnesses into the Fourfold Wisdom and presenting it to us fully and clearly.

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.

also mention in the same book that Master Imakita Kosen likewise writes in the fourth chapter of Zenkai Ichiran that the consistent way of a superior man lies nowhere but in saying, "Yes!"7 Master Takuan calls this mind that answers, "Yes!" Immovable Wisdom. I think that this spontaneous response to anything in the affirmative selflessly and with mu-shin (no mind) is "praising the practice of zazen and faithfully following it.

Our body then is no longer a mere physical body but the body of Buddha and the True Body of the individual. It embodies and concretely expresses the spiritual nature and inexhaustible wisdom of various Buddhas. It is as if the body is the whole universe.

When people with only a shallow experience define Zen simply as a way to promote health or a way for human development, it is an embarrassment for Zen even though Zen has these aspects.

Failure is God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction."

True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience."

I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying to me, 'you are going to have to learn to do this ' and me being in that space of awareness and knowing that my life would not be the same as my grandmother's life.

Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.

True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience.

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.

One if the hardest things in life to learn are which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.

We've got to think now, in real terms, for that seventh generation . . . We've got to get back to spiritual law if we are to survive.

I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.

Tell me then, does love make one a fool or do only fools fall in love?

Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.

The first thing I learned at school was that some people are idiots; the second thing I learned was that some are even worse.

Food and sex have been bound together for a long time. I guess this is due to the intimate connection between the two most powerful instincts that predominate in life: the instinct to survive and the instinct to multiply. Nourishment and sex give us a great sense of pleasure. Having the wisdom to satisfy both desires—for food and sex—is the art of living well. I truly believe that this wisdom lies within us all.

How would you know?" I snapped at him, and we both looked to the midwife. When she assured us that everything was fine and reminded us both to breathe, we listened. She knew. She had been there many times before. It was her knowledge, born of experience, that we trusted.

If we in the West, where so much of the world's political and economic power reside, are going to find a way to make the changes that are necessary to ensure that our children's children can live on this planet, we have to learn how to participate fully in our own lives, how to remember and experience the interconnectedness of all spirit and matter. I seek wisdom in a life that combines contemplation and action.