Daily Zen Quote - October 31, 2013

What shall I leave behind?
empty skies
fields
dandelions
birds swooping
faces, faces
each veiled
each mirroring
the Faces of faces.
Farewell...
hands waving in the mist.

~Issa

Daily Zen Quote - October 30, 2013

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.

~Lao-Tsu

Daily Zen Quote - October 29, 2013

The Buddhas in all directions as numerous as the sand grains of the Ganges River would be unable to estimate the merits of an hour's sitting in meditation of a single person.

~Dogen

Daily Zen Quote - October 28, 2013

Though in Kyoto
     I long for Kyoto.

~Basho

Daily Zen Quote - October 27, 2013

The Tao may be transmitted only to him who already has it.

~Zen Saying

Daily Zen Quote - October 26, 2013

If you wish to seek the Buddha, look into your own being, for this being is Buddha himself.

~Bodhidharma

Daily Zen Quote - October 25, 2013

All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.

~Kabir

Daily Zen Quote - October 25, 2013

All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.

~Kabir

Daily Zen Quote - October 24, 2013

Great trees have great uses; small trees have small uses. Good and bad can all be used in their own way. None are to be discarded. Keep both good and bad friends. You mustn't reject anything. This is true Buddhism.

~Kyong Ho

Daily Zen Quote - October 23, 2013

Great Doubt, Great Death, Great Joy.

~Hakuin, on Religion

Daily Zen Quote - October 22, 2013

One day Governor Wang visited the temple and met Rinzai.
"Do the monks here read sutras?" he asked.
"No, they don't," said Rinzai.
"Do they learn meditation?"
"No," Rinzai said, "no meditation."
"No sutras, no meditation. What on earth are they doing here?"
"All I do is to make them buddhas and boddhisattvas," Rinzai replied.

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - October 21, 2013

Every single thing
Changes and is changing
Always in this world.
Yet with the same light
The moon goes on shining.

~Saigyo

Daily Zen Quote - October 20, 2013

Just boiling water and making tea, just drinking it. Nothing else.

~Soen's Tea Company

Daily Zen Quote - October 19, 2013

At high tide, the sea, they say, leaves a deep pool below the rock-shelf. There the women dip their water jars.

~Euripides "Haiku"

Daily Zen Quote - October 18, 2013

Zen is like soap. First you was with it, and then you wash off the soap.

~Yamaoka Tesshu

Daily Zen Quote - October 17, 2013

Though a man perform the meritorious deed of zazen but once, he annihilates forever the countless he has piled up.

~Zen Saying

Daily Zen Quote - October 16, 2013

The shortest answer is doing.

~George Herbert

Daily Zen Quote - October 15, 2013

Pupil: What is the (mental) sword of Ummon?
Ummon: Hung!
Pupil: What is the one straight passage to Ummon?
Ummon: Most intimate!
Pupil: What is the eye of the true Law?
Ummon: Everywhere!
Pupil: What is the way?
Ummon: Forward!

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - October 14, 2013

When the eye wakes up to see, it suddenly stops taking anything for granted. The thing I draw, be it leaf, rosebush, woman, or child, is no longer a thing, no longer my "object."...By drawing it, I dignify it. I declare it worthy of total attention, as worthy of attention as I am myself, for sheer existence is the awesome mystery and miracle we share.

~Frederick Franck

Daily Zen Quote - October 13, 2013

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

~Jack Kornfield

Daily Zen Quote - October 12, 2013

A thousand mountain ranges separate the one who reflects from the one who is truly present.

~Zen Saying

Daily Zen Quote - October 11, 2013

To know that you know, and to know that you don't know - that is the real wisdom.

~Confucius

Daily Zen Quote - October 10, 2013

The past is already past -
     don't try to recapture it.
The present doesn't stay -
     don't try to hold onto it.
The future is not arrived -
     don't think about it.
Whatever comes to your eye, leave it be.
There are no commandments to keep.

~Layman P'ang

Daily Zen Quote - October 9, 2013

Not what the eye sees, but that which makes the eye see, that is the Spirit.

~The Upanishads

Daily Zen Quote - October 8, 2013

Zen insight is not our awareness, but Being's awareness of itself in us.

~Thomas Merton

Daily Zen Quote - October 7, 2013

One of Patriarch Ma's disciples was asked:
"What is the Buddhist trinity and what does it mean?"
"Corn, wheat, and beans," replied the disciple.
"I don't understand."
"Then let us be happy and glorify the trinity."

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - October 6, 2013

My body will perish but if you follow my teachings, it will be the same as if I were alive.

~The Buddha

Daily Zen Quote - October 5, 2013

Cut off thought by the power of meditation.
By this alone nearly everyone can attain the Way.

~Dogen

Daily Zen Quote - October 4, 2013

You want to know what's in my heart?
From the beginning, just this! Just this!

~Ryokan

Daily Zen Quote - October 3, 2013

Master Tokusan spent years devoted to study of the sutras, especially The Diamond Sutra. But once he reached Zen insight under Master Ryutan, he took all of his treasured copies of The Diamond Sutra and its many commentaries, and put them in fire. "However deep your knowledge of profound mysteries," he said, "it is but a piece of hair placed in the vastness of space. However important your experience in worldly things, it is but a drop of water thrown into an abysmal ravine."

~Zen Story

Daily Zen Quote - October 2, 2013

Entering the forest, not a blade of grass moves.
Entering the water, not a ripple.

~Basho

Daily Zen Quote - October 1, 2013

There are only two diseases: one is riding an ass to search for an ass. The other is riding the ass and being unwilling to dismount...I say to you: do not ride the ass at all. You yourself are the ass. Mountains, rivers, and plains are all the ass. Why do you ride on it? If you do not ride, the universe in all directions becomes one wide expanse. With these diseases expelled, nothing remains to affect your mind. You need do nothing more.

~Ch-ing-Yuan