Daily Zen Quote - May 31, 2016

“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
 ~ Dōgen

Daily Zen Quote - May 30, 2016

“It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.”
~ Jon J. Muth

Daily Zen Quote - May 29, 2016

“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”
~ Meister Eckhart

Daily Zen Quote - May 28, 2016

“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”
~ Zhuangzi Nan-Hua-Ch'en-Ching, or, the Treatise of the transcendent master from Nan-Hua

Daily Zen Quote - May 27, 2016

“The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?”
~ Confucius

Daily Zen Quote - May 26, 2016

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
~ Alan W. Watts

Daily Zen Quote - May 25, 2016

“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
~ Ray Bradbury

Daily Zen Quote - May 24, 2016

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Daily Zen Quote - May 23, 2016

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
~ Rumi

Daily Zen Quote - May 22, 2016

“Not being tense but ready.
Not thinking but not dreaming.
Not being set but flexible.
Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement.
It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”
~ Bruce Lee from Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Daily Zen Quote - May 21, 2016

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”
~ Robert M. Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Daily Zen Quote - May 20, 2016

“The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?”
~ Confucius

Daily Zen Quote - May 19, 2016

“I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”
~ Osho

Daily Zen Quote - May 18, 2016

“Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.”
~ Ray Bradbury

Daily Zen Quote - May 17, 2016

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Daily Zen Quote - May 16, 2016

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and right doing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
~ Rumi

Daily Zen Quote - May 15, 2016

“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.”
~ Sengcan

Daily Zen Quote - May 14, 2016

“Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called "mind-only," or "essence of mind," or "big mind," After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life.”
~ Shunryu Suzuki

Daily Zen Quote - May 13, 2016

“What is not true does not exist in this moment.”
~ Bert McCoy

Daily Zen Quote - May 12, 2016

“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 neighbouring wood: — in all these I am practising 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 - May 11, 2016

“Travel is such a wonderful experience! Especially when you forget you are traveling. Then you will enjoy whatever you see and do. Those who look into themselves when they travel will not think about what they see. In fact, there is no distinction between the viewer and the seen. You experience everything with the totality of yourself, so that every blade of grass, every mountain, every lake is alive and is a part of you. When there is no division between you and what is other, this is the ultimate experience of traveling.”
~ Liezi from Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

Daily Zen Quote - May 10, 2016

“When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because of the subject;
the mind is such because of things.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.”
~ Sengcan

Daily Zen Quote - May 9, 2016

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

Daily Zen Quote - May 8, 2016

“When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist.
When thought objects vanish,
the thinking-subject vanishes,
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
Things are objects because of the subject;
the mind is such because of things.
Understand the relativity of these two
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
and each contains in itself the whole world.
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.”
~ Sengcan

Daily Zen Quote - May 7, 2016

“Every hour of your life that ticks by, there are numerous points and moments when you can choose to pause - and be aware of your mental and physical state. At any given point, you can freeze the flow that is your life, and be fully conscious for a moment.”
~ Kevin Michel from Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams

Daily Zen Quote - May 6, 2016

“Two monks were once traveling together down a wet and muddy road. The rain was torrential, making it almost impossible to walk along the path. As the two men were trudging along, a beautiful girl dressed in silk appeared. She was unable to cross the path and looked distressed.

“Let me help you”, said the older monk. He picked her up and carried her over the mud. His younger male companion did not utter a word that night until they reached their lodging temple. Then after hours of restrained conversation, the younger monk exclaimed: “We monks do not touch females; it is too tempting for us and can create a bad outcome”. The older monk looked into the younger monks eyes and said, “I left the girl on the road. Are you still carrying her?”

This ancient Zen story illustrates beautifully how so many of us are trapped in the habit of constantly “re-living” the past in our minds, thus dishonoring the present moment. The young monk wasted hours distressing himself with judgment, speculation, anxiety, resentment and ultimately self-perpetuated unhappiness as a direct result of not being mindful.”
~ Christopher Dines from Mindfulness Meditation: Bringing Mindfulness into Everyday Life

Daily Zen Quote - May 5, 2016

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

Daily Zen Quote - May 4, 2016

“Be aware of yourself without thinking or looking in the mirror”
~ Bert McCoy

Daily Zen Quote - May 3, 2016

“Anywhere we go, we will have our self with us; we cannot escape ourselves.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Daily Zen Quote - May 2, 2016

“There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh from How to Sit