Daily Zen Quote - October 31, 2015

“All other creatures look down toward the earth, but man was given a face so that might turn his eyes toward the stars and his gaze upon the sky.”
~ Ovid

Daily Zen Quote - October 30, 2015

“The object of our lives is to look at, listen to, touch, taste things. Without them—these sticks, stones, feathers, shells—there is no Deity.”
~ R.H. Blyth by Zen in English Literature & Oriental Classics

Daily Zen Quote - October 29, 2015

“For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end.”
~ Alan W. Watts from The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Daily Zen Quote - October 28, 2015

“Life is a river," a wise friend told me. "It's flowing. You're never at the same place twice.”
~ Kamal Ravikant from Live Your Truth

Daily Zen Quote - October 27, 2015

“The glass is neither half empty, nor half full. The glass is just a glass and it's content can perpetually change with your perception.”
~ Jennifer Sodini

Daily Zen Quote - October 26, 2015

“We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from the moon.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh by No Death, No Fear

Daily Zen Quote - October 25, 2015

“What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen?”
~ Henry David Thoreau by Walden

Daily Zen Quote - October 24, 2015

“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do.”
~ Shunryu Suzuki from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Daily Zen Quote - October 23, 2015

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way”
~ Alan W. Watts from The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Daily Zen Quote - October 22, 2015

“The things I carry are my thoughts. That's it. They are the only weight. My thoughts determine whether I am free and light or burdened.”
~ Kamal Ravikant from Live Your Truth

Daily Zen Quote - October 21, 2015

“Life is full of highs and lows. We need them both to grow to our fullest potential. Just hang on tight & enjoy the ride.”
~ Dawn Gluskin

Daily Zen Quote - October 20, 2015

“Zen movement is a meditative practice.”
~ Bryant McGill from Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

Daily Zen Quote - October 19, 2015

“Mindfulness is attainable when one can embrace life, not its circumstances.”
~ Michelle Cruz-Rosado

Daily Zen Quote - October 18, 2015

“You are not your thoughts!! This simple yet powerful statement can greatly change the quality of your life.”
~ Dawn Gluskin

Daily Zen Quote - October 17, 2015

“The true source of happiness is within each of us.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - October 16, 2015

“But I looked out at the waves far below the bluff. They looked violent, erupting against the cliff. I watched them rising - up, up, higher, higher - then falling, crashing, swirling into chaos, passing away. I breathed deeply. I tried to breathe space between my thoughts, find the space between the anger.”
~ Jaimal Yogis from Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer's Quest to Find Zen on the Sea

Daily Zen Quote - October 15, 2015

“If the feet of enlightenment moved, the great ocean would overflow; If that head bowed, it would look down upon the heavens.
Such a body has no place to rest. . . .
Let another continue this poem.”
~ Paul Reps from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings

Daily Zen Quote - October 14, 2015

“The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - October 13, 2015

“If you are surrounded by people who not only don't believe in your goals and your positive outlook on life, but who also continually try to tear you down, it will be extremely challenging for you to hold firmly in mind that you will succeed and that you can be happy.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - October 12, 2015

“To speak conventionally - and I think it is easier for the general reader to see Zen thus presented - there are unknown recesses in our minds which lie beyond the threshold of the relatively constructed consciousness. To designate them as “sub-consciousness” or “supra-consciousness” is not correct. The word “beyond” is used simply because it is a most convenient term to indicate their whereabouts. But as a matter of fact there is no “beyond”, no “underneath”, no “upon” in our consciousness. The mind is one indivisible whole and cannot be torn in pieces. The so-called Terra incognito is the concession of Zen to our ordinary way of talking, because whatever field of consciousness that is known to us is generally filled with conceptual riffraff, and to get rid of them, which is absolutely necessary for maturing Zen experience, the Zen psychologist sometimes points to the presence of some inaccessible region in our minds. Though in actuality there is no such region apart from our everyday consciousness, we talk of it as generally more easily comprehensible by us.”
~ D.T. Suzuki from An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Daily Zen Quote - October 11, 2015

“If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things are as they are,
of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One essence
is to be released from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relation-less state.

Consider movement stationary
and the stationary in motion,
both movement and rest disappear.
When such dualities cease to exist
Oneness itself cannot exist.
To this ultimate finality
no law or description applies.”
~ Seng-Ts0an

Daily Zen Quote - October 10, 2015

“The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is simply to release any images and emotions.”
~ Alan W. Watts

Daily Zen Quote - October 9, 2015

“If you have mindfulness, if you feel safe, you recognize that you have plenty of conditions to be happy already, and that you don't need to run into the future in order to get a few more conditions.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh by Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society

Daily Zen Quote - October 8, 2015

“We grow up to believe that we are supposed to somehow "become" who we are meant to be through the trial-by-fire that is life here on planet Earth.

Reality is...there's no "becoming".

It's actually all an "un-becoming", only to reunite with who you were born to be in the first place before society told you otherwise.”
~ Jennifer Sodini

Daily Zen Quote - October 7, 2015

“The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand ; I take a book from the other side of the desk ; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: — in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No wordy discussions is necessary, nor any explanation. I do not know why — and there is no need of explaining, but when the sun rises the whole world dances with joy and everybody’s heart is filled with bliss. If Zen is at all conceivable, it must be taken hold of here.”
~ D.T. Suzuki from An Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Daily Zen Quote - October 6, 2015

“Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction.”
~ Alan W. Watts

Daily Zen Quote - October 5, 2015

“Zen is the period of time during which a person has true clarity of vision.”
~ Dr. Ernst Arnold

Daily Zen Quote - October 4, 2015

“There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh from How to Sit

Daily Zen Quote - October 3, 2015

“Anywhere we go, we will have our self with us; we cannot escape ourselves.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

Daily Zen Quote - October 2, 2015

“There’s surprising relief and regeneration in finding ourselves within a moment of genuine grace, however small or temporary it may be.”
~ Darrell Calkins

Daily Zen Quote - October 1, 2015

“Love always wins over hate”
~ Johnny Corn