Quotes About Zen

Dogen-zenji said, "To give is nonattachment." That is, just not to attach to anything is to give.

Our Soto way puts an emphasis on shikan taza , or "just sitting." Actually we do not have any particular name for our practice; when we practice zazen we just practice it, and whether we find joy in our practice or not, we just do it. Even though we are sleepy, and we are tired of practicing zazen, of repeating the same thing day after day; even so, we continue our practice. Whether or not someone encourages our practice, we just do it.

Those who can sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen, the actual feeling of Zen, the marrow of Zen.

It is the people who are outside of the monastery who feel its atmosphere," writes the Zen master. "Those who are practicing actually do not feel anything.

Some people may say that Zen Buddhism is not religion. Maybe that is so, or maybe Zen Buddhism is religion before religion. So it might not be religion in the usual sense. But it is wonderful, and even though we do not study what it is intellectually, even though we do not have any cathedral or fancy ornaments, it is possible to appreciate our original nature. This is, I think, quite unusual.

TRANSIENCY    ââ'¬Å"We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.

But if sound did not already exist before you clapped, you could not make the sound. Before you make it there is sound. Because there is sound, you can make it, and you can hear it. Sound is everywhere.

Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, "I know what Zen is," or "I have attained enlightenment." This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point.

The Zen way of calligraphy is to write in the most straightforward, simple way as if you were a beginner, not trying to make something skillful or beautiful, but simply writing with full attention as if you were discovering what you were writing for the first time; then your full nature will be in your writing. This is the way of practice moment after moment.

Negative energies can't touch you if you are in a state of meditativeness.

Pour lui, le pinceau est un pendule entre ciel et terre, et l'art de la calligraphie la meilleure façon de se tenir en suspens entre le monde terrestre et celui des dieux.

What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the weight of a single grain of sand? The answer is equal to my interest in the message you are about to leave so make it short. -- Mitch Hertzog's voice mail message.

Although, conscious of the similarities they shared with Zen, Jesuits in Japan stressed the differences.

After the eviction of the Jesuits from China, and until the early twentieth century, most information available in the West on Chan and Zen was provided casually, as part of material on China or Buddhism. In that period little attention was paid to Chan/Zen doctrine as such, for Chinese Buddhism, unlike Indian Buddhism, was not considered worthy of serious study.

The success of [D. T.] Suzuki's work was not related to its literary or philosophical qualities; it was rather the result of a historical coniuncture that prompted the emergence in the West of a positive modality of Orientalist discourse, which found in the image of Zen fostered by Suzuki a particularly appropriate object.

D. T.] Suzuki's obvious sincerity and his intense yearning for transcendence did not prevent his thinking from being ideologically flawed, informed as it was by his culture, his social status, and his sectarian affiliations. This, of course, raises the questions of the place whence he spoke and whether an enlightened person can assume any privilege with regard to historical determinations. Suzuki claimed this privilege for Zen masters, and by implication for himself.

The Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting.

I'm familiar with that magical mindset during sporting competition where one feels completely zoned in on what's happening. There are occasional nights in poker when the mists have cleared, and I just know what my opponents' cards are. Everything at the table is slow, loud, and easy. The rest of the world is silent.

The simpler I keep things, the better I play.

In this book, when I say "Don't think," what I mean is: don't listen to the chatter. Pay no attention to those rambling, disjointed images and notions that drift across the movie screen of your mind.

THE PRACTICE OF MINDFULNESS That winter while in a bookstore I picked up a book on mindful meditation by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

There is an old Zen saying about seeing the moon's reflection in a pond. If the surface of the pond is agitated and full of ripples, the moon's reflection won't look anything like the moon. That agitation, those ripples, are your constant thoughts and feelings, which disturb your ability to perceive truth. When the pond is perfectly still, however -when your thoughts and feelings withdraw and stay quiet -then you can see the moon's reflection. You can perceive the truth.

It was all balance. But then, she already knew that from surfing.