Quotes About Zen

Is there some connection between waking up in the mystic sense, and learning to read (or to see paintings, say) in an alert, non-mechanical way? One Zen master, when asked what Zen is, always replied with the single word, Attention. What the hell did he mean?

The zen of housecleaning allows one to reach inner peace.

as if you are already dead.'" "What's that?" "A Japanese saying. Live as if you are already dead.

Some of the gardeners, Nanao said, worked according to the precepts of Muso Soseki, others according to other Japanese Zen masters; others still to Fu Hsi, the legendary inventor of the Chinese system of geomancy called feng shui; others to Persian gardening gurus, including Omar Khayyam; or to Leopold or Jackson, or other early American ecologists, like the nearly forgotten biologist Oskar Schnelling; and so on. These

I see the search for objectivity in the social sciences as something along the lines of Zen enlightenment: I don't personally expect to achieve either of them, but I do find the pursuit worthwhile.

It's a relationship like to a crusty Zen master, or something like that. And it is really like another entity because you cannot predict the answers.

When a garden is used as a place to pause for thought, that is when a Zen garden comes to life. When you contemplate a garden like this it will form as lasting impression on your heart.

Tea...is a religion of the art of life.

Zen is a totally different kind of religion. It brings humanness to religion. It is not bothered about anything superhuman; its whole concern is how to make ordinary life a blessing.

Zen is not a religion. There is no room for a cult. There is no dependence on a teacher. There is only learning how to use your own mind and making it strong.

At Patagonia, making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when you do everything else right'.

Again, like the Zen approach to archery or anything else, you identify the goal and then forget about it and concentrate on the process. Measure

Before enlightenment — chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment — chop wood, carry water.

Don't go in and hide; don't come out and shine; stand stock-still in the middle.

Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.

Canning is a whole world of a thing to do. It requires that you get out of your head. It's a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering about your inadequacies and how they drove Bob off and be making jelly. You'll wind up with big, cylindrical jujubes.

Absolute equals nothingness.

In Zen, there is an old saying: The obstacle is the path. Know that a whole and happy life is not free of obstacles. Quite the contrary, a whole and happy life is riddled with obstacles-they simply become the very stepping-stones that help lift us to a new perspective. It is not what happens to us in this life that shapes us, it is how we choose to respond to what happens to us.

Cats know everything there is to know about meditation.

In Zen, actions speak louder than words. Doing is more important than knowing, and knowledge which cannot be translated into action is of little worth.

In order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand - or at least to learn to understand - the beauty of stone.

In Zen you are learning how to make new realities, to build things inside your mind.

It seemed like the only way to keep breathing was to focus on the here and now, moment by moment, keeping my mind frozen cold to anything else.

water laughing softly down a black stone wall.