Daily Zen Quote - November 30, 2013

Heaven, Earth, and I were produced together.

~So-Shi

Daily Zen Quote - November 29, 2013

In their deepest nature men are Buddha, as water is ice. And there is no ice without water, so without the Buddha there could be no men. Woe to them who seek it in the far distance, and know not that it is very near.

~Hakuin

Daily Zen Quote - November 28, 2013

When you get free from certain fixed concepts of the way the world is, you find it is far more subtle, and far more miraculous, than you thought it was.

~Alan Watts

Daily Zen Quote - November 27, 2013

Think this certain, that to a good man no evil can happen, either in life or in death.

~Socrates

Daily Zen Quote - November 26, 2013

Countless paths
lead to the mountain's summit
yet from it
the same moon shines
over the land.

~Ikkyu

Daily Zen Quote - November 25, 2013

If one thinks that one is following Zen by going contrary to every established form, one is hopelessly mistaken and has already fallen into another form, namely that of thinking that one must be free of formality.

~Sohaku Ogata

Daily Zen Quote - November 24, 2013

The Absolute, or union with the Absolute, is not something to be attained; one does not enter Nirvana, for entrance to a place one has never left is impossible.

~John Blofeld

Daily Zen Quote - November 23, 2013

Loosing and dropping off body and mind, your original face is clear before you.

~The Zazengi

Daily Zen Quote - November 22, 2013

Though it has no thought of keeping watch, it's not for naught that the scarecrow stands in the grain field.

~Dogen

Daily Zen Quote - November 21, 2013

What is it that dwells there
I know not
but my heart is full of awe
tears trickle.

~Medieval Japanese Verse

Daily Zen Quote - November 20, 2013

It is not the same thing to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.

~Spanish Proverb

Daily Zen Quote - November 19, 2013

I believe the ultimate aim of all human beings is to obtain happiness and a sense of fulfillment...I have always stressed the importance of combining both the mental and material approach to achieving happiness for humankind.

~The Dalai Lama

Daily Zen Quote - November 18, 2013

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

~Marcel Proust

Daily Zen Quote - November 17, 2013

Ordinary is extraordinary!

~Soen

Daily Zen Quote - November 16, 2013

Nothing comes into existence nor does something disappear. Nothing is eternal, nor has anything any end. Nothing is identical or differentiated. Nothing moves hither and thither.

~Nagarjuna

Daily Zen Quote - November 15, 2013

When Dogen was studying in China he was reading the Buddhist scriptures, and his teacher asked why.
     "I want to learn what the ancestors did in the past," Dogen answered.
     "What for?" pressed the Master.
     "Because I would like to be a free from human suffering."
     "What for?"
     "Because sooner or later I would like to go back to Japan and help the village people and all sentient beings."
     "What for?" the Master asked again.
     At last Dogen didn't say anything.
     Finally, there was nothing to say, because the questions had touched the core of his human life, so-called death.

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - November 14, 2013

Having taken the no-form as your form,
Going and returning are not to be elsewhere.
Having taken the no-thought as your thought,
Singing and dancing become the voice of the law.

~Hakuin

Daily Zen Quote - November 13, 2013

Man always dies before he is fully born.

~Erich Fromm

Daily Zen Quote - November 12, 2013

When is a man in mere understanding? When he sees things as separated one from the other. And when is he beyond mere understanding? When he sees all in all.

~Meister Eckhart

Daily Zen Quote - November 11, 2013

The master Tan-hsia was traveling with several monks and stopped for the night in a monastery. The night was bitter cold and there was no firewood, so Tan-hsia took down a wooden image of the Buddha, chopped it into pieces, and used it for a fire. The monks were scandalized with this sacrilege, so Tan-hsia explained: "I only burned the statue to get to the sarira (sacred bone relic)."
     "You can't expect to find sarira in a piece of wood," the monks exclaimed.
     "Well, then," said Tan-hsia, "I am only burning a piece of wood."

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - November 10, 2013

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity.

~Ray Bradbury

Daily Zen Quote - November 9, 2013

Body is identical with mind; appearance and reality are one and the same thing.

~Dogen

Daily Zen Quote - November 8, 2013

Out of discussion we call to vision, to those desiring to see we point the path; our teaching is a guiding in the way; the seeing must be the very act of him, who has made the choice.

~Plotinus

Daily Zen Quote - November 7, 2013

Look directly! Look directly! And you won't be fooled.

~Bassui

Daily Zen Quote - November 6, 2013

Once Rinzai was fast asleep on his meditation cushion. The master Obaku came into the hall and hit the wooden sounding board with his stick. Rinzai awoke, saw who it was, and fell promptly back to sleep. Meanwhile, further down the hall, the head monk Bokushu was sitting diligently in meditation. Obaku came up behind Bokushu and hit the sounding board again, shouting: "That young fellow in the lesser seat is really meditating. What do you think you're doing?"
     "What does the master want from me?" Bokushu replied. Obaku hit the board again, and then walked out.

~Zen Mondo

Daily Zen Quote - November 5, 2013

If you wish to make gold, you must already have it.

~Zen of Alchemy

Daily Zen Quote - November 4, 2013

Conversion is held to come to an essentially depraved Man from an eternal God, while Satori is the realization of one's own inmost nature. Conversion takes place when something comes from outside and transforms the world, while Satori is just seeing the world as it really is, for to Zen the supernatural is natural, while to Christianity it is something not inherent in nature at all.

~Alan Watts

Daily Zen Quote - November 3, 2013

Everything is but we think it.

~Marcus Aurelius

Daily Zen Quote - November 2, 2013

Let go your hold!

~Zen Saying

Daily Zen Quote - November 1, 2013

He who listens to truth is not less than he who utters truth.

~Kahlil Gibran