Quotes About Emptiness

By emptying ourselves we become one with objects, deeply absorbed in our work. To be thus thoroughly one with everything with which we are confronted is the true essence of mu. It is the state of both physical and spiritual liberation, to which kufu in movement should point.

by trying to become "no-thought and no-thinking," we create the idea of "no-thought and no-thinking." This is one example of the wrong direction of zazen.

Kawajiri Hogin classifies those who sit for wrong reasons as: 1) those who sit in order to tranquilize their minds; 2) those who sit to be empty in their minds; 3) those who solve koan as if they were guessing games; 4) those who start sitting, motivated by their wish for escape from this disturbing world.

If we negate ourselves and completely plunge into the objective world around us, all oppositions cease. The phrase goes, "The holy man has no self; and, therefore, everything becomes the holy man." By making ourselves empty and plunging deep into the surrounding world to be integrated with things, the surrounding world will in turn become ourselves. We and the world thus will be one, and we will be masters everywhere.

The lay Zen Master Kawajiri Hogin also warns against this empty type of sitting: To begin with, most people who practice zazen consciously try to make themselves empty. This is a grave mistake because you have thoughts about becoming empty, and it is futile to sit however long you may try to do so.

As long as you are conscious of your wish to be empty, you will never succeed in becoming empty.

The flowers withered,Their color faded away,While meaninglesslyI spent my days in the worldAnd the long rains were falling.

This night of no moonThere is no way to meet him.I rise in longing—My breast pounds, a leaping flame,My heart is consumed in fire.

Though we knew each other without overlapping our clothes, still, with this autumn wind's sound, I find myself waiting for you.

The cherry blossoms have faded now in hue - gazing emptily upon the long spring rains, I too know what it is to age.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.

I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky.

I felt as though the vessel if my suffering had become empty, as if nothing could interest me now. I had lost even the ability to suffer.

Disqualified as a human beings. I had now ceased utterly to be a human beings.

I soon came to understand that drink, tobacco and prostitutes were all great means if dissipating (even for a few moments) my dread for human beings. I came even to feel that if I had to sell every last possession to obtain these means of escape, it would be well worth it.

My eyes would swim in my head, and the whole world grow dark before me, so that I felt half out of my mind.

At times everything grows misty and dark before my eyes, and I feel that the strength of my whole body is oozing away through my finger tips.

Tahun lalu tak terjadi apa-apa Tahun sebelumnya pun tak terjadi apa-apa Dan tahun sebelum tahun sebelumnya juga tak terjadi apa-apa.

I was plagued by a heavy sense of loss, as if my heart had become empty.

En mi existencia ya no existe la felicidad o el sufrimiento. Todo pasa.

Somehow it is not the smile of a human being: it utterly lacks substance, all of what we might call the "heaviness of blood" or perhaps the "solidity of human life"—it has not even a bird's weight. It is merely a blank sheet of paper, light as a feather, and it is smiling.

I have only to shut my eyes after looking at it to forget the face. I can remember the wall of the room, the little heater, but all impression of the face of the principal figure in the room is blotted out; I am unable to recall a single thing about it.

I shall become nothing, the wind, the sky.

Around that time, I lost interest in college. I could only see blackness