Quotes About Zen

A true Zen saying: Nothing is what I want.

Huzur mu istiyorsun ? Az insan, az eÅŸya

Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path.

Nothing is but what is now

What attracted me to Zen was my first teacher, Tim McCarthy. He was extremely genuine. It wasn't even really a Zen thing, that sort of came along later.

Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment.

America is a place where Jewish merchants sell Zen love beads to agnostics for Christmas.

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature, in her manner of operation.

The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accordance with nature, in her manner of operation.

Circumference = nowhere; center point =

If I was asked to get rid of the Zen aesthetic and just keep one quality necessary to create art, I would say it's trust. When you learn to trust yourself implicitly, you no longer need to prove something through your art. You simply allow it to come out, to be as it is. This is when creating art becomes effortless. It happens just as you grow your hair. It grows.

The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation.

Zen is a special transmission outside the scriptures, no reliance on words and letters, a direct pointing to the human mind, the realization of Buddhahood.

transcendence of both unenlightenment

Fundamentally, Zen is a way of seeing clearly who we are and what our life is, and a way of living based on that clear vision.

When I say that Zen is life, I mean that Zen is not to be confined within conceptualization, that Zen is what makes conceptualization possible.

Find your center and stay there. It will allow you to live your life to its maximum.

Zen is discipline - the discipline of living life, the discipline of taking a breath, the discipline of not knowing and not trying to know.

I steeled myself for the next response. I knew it was going to be one of the Zen life lessons. [...] Instead he kissed me.

Connection to Buddhism is strand in my life.

If we have to translate it, wu-wei is probably best rendered as something like "effortless action" or spontaneous action.

A Zendo is not a peaceful haven but a furnace room for the combustion of our egotistical delusions.

When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.

as the Zen saying goes, 'If you take care of your mind, you take care of the world.'