Quotes About Zen

It gets sort of Zen after a while," Butters said brightly. "Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is a jar.

It gets kind of zen after awhile, life is a journey, time is a river, the door is ajar.

Mouse liked going places in the car. That the place had happened to be a clandestine meeting in a freaking graveyard didn't seem to spoil anything for him. It was all about the journey, not the destination. A very Zen soul, was Mouse.

The door is ajar," the dashboard said. "It won't shut up," I explained to him. "It gets sort of Zen after a while," Butters said brightly. "Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is a jar.

In New Orleans they have mastered the art of the motionless. In

Instead of Gnostics, we have Existentialists and God-is-dead theologians, instead of Neo-Platonists, devotees of Zen, instead of desert hermits, heroin addicts and Beats (who also, oddly enough, seem averse to washing), instead of mortification of the flesh, sado-masochistic pornography; as for our public entertainments, the fare offered by television is still a shade less brutal than that provided by the Amphitheatre, but only a shade and may not be so for long.

I recommend, for many people, the study of computer science. Our natural resource in America is the mind. The mindset in computer science is very similar to the mindset in Zen.

Stay cool, hang loose, admit nothing.

I just had to stay cool. Zen. No punching in the face. Punching would not be Zen.

Always now - just now - come into being. Always now - just now - give yourself to death. Practicing this is Zen practice.

Some cooks prepare their meals and leave a big mess for later, but the way of zen is to clean as you go.

Zen is nothing more than adhering to such simple tasks, with full attention.

A good basic character should be developed even before discussing enlightenment or the growth of your soul. That's why Zen initiates developed their basic character traits through nine years of study—three years of cleaning, three years of firewood collecting and cutting, and three years of cooking. Teachings on the Tao were transmitted only to those who had successfully cultivated such character in themselves.

The world of dew is the world of dew. And yet, and yet--

This is like a boat following a current downstream. Though you can say that it moves, the boat is at rest and there is no trace of that movement. This is called 'moving without moving.'36

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.

Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.

Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment. (From 'Fukan zazengi')

Change is the basis of human life, so don't attach yourself to birth or death, continuation or discontinuation. Just live right in the middle of the flow of change, where there is nothing to hold on to. How do you do this? Just be present and devote yourself to doing something. This is the simple practice of Zen.

Zen has a pronounced iconoclastic tendency, and regards the study of texts, doctrines, and dogmas as a potential hindrance to spiritual awakening, relying instead on humour, spontaneity, unconventionality, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression to communicate the idea of enlightenment

Create a peaceful environment.

Always remember: in life as well as on the mat an unfocused or 'loose' mind wastes energy.

Sam Keen points out that Zen masters spend years to reach an enlightenment that every natural child already knows—the total incarnation of sleeping when you're tired and eating when you're hungry. What irony that this state of Zen-like bliss is programmatically and systematically destroyed.