Daily Zen Quote - December 31, 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 - December 30, 2015

“I sit in meditation…and soon all sounds, and all one sees and feels, take on imminence, an immanence, as if the Universe were coming to attention, a Universe of which one is the center, a Universe that is not the same yet not different from oneself: within man as within mountains there are many parts of hydrogen and oxygen, of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and other elements. ‘You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself flows in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars…’(Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditation)

The secret of the mountains is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no ‘meaning,’ they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share.”
~ Peter Matthiessen from The Snow Leopard

Daily Zen Quote - December 29, 2015

“Your actions create an "energy vortex" that draws in the necessary ingredients for your venture.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 28, 2015

“Again, all of life presents us with two basic ways to treat events. We can either label them "god for us" or "bad for us." The event is only an event. It's how we treat the event that determines what it becomes in our lives. The event doesn't make that determination- we do.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 27, 2015

“Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form of action or by preventing you from taking action. If you don't believe something is possible, you won't even attempt it.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 26, 2015

“If you feel depressed for an hour, you've produced approximately eighteen billion new cells that have more receptors calling out for depressed-type peptides and fewer calling out for feel-good peptides.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 25, 2015

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

 

Daily Zen Quote - December 24, 2015

“What determines each person's state of happiness or unhappiness is not the event itself, but what the event means to that person.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 23, 2015

“The more you engage in any type of emotion or behavior, the greater your desire for it will become.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 22, 2015

“Who you allow into the circle of your life will make the difference in the quality of your life.”
~ Chris Prentiss from Zen and the Art of Happiness

Daily Zen Quote - December 21, 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 - December 20, 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 - December 19, 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 - December 18, 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 - December 17, 2015

“In a Zen retreat we have a format for working with these quicksilver changes: we sit with them, we pay attention to them... Being steady with mindfulness as an anchor for all the changes we go through is the way we practice forbearance. And you can employ this same method anywhere anytime: just pay close attention to the details of what is going on internally and externally. Don't flinch, don't run away. Trust what happens. Take your stand there." (71)”
~ Norman Fischer from Sailing Home: Using Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls

Daily Zen Quote - December 16, 2015

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

Daily Zen Quote - December 15, 2015

“To practice with an end in view is to have one eye on the practice and the other on the end, which is lack of concentration, lack of sincerity.”
~ Alan W. Watts

Daily Zen Quote - December 14, 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 - December 13, 2015

“During this journey it was as if he again thought over his whole life and reached the same old comforting and hopeless conclusion: that there was no need for him to start anything, that he had to live out his life without doing evil, without anxiety, and without wishing for anything.”
~ Leo Tolstoy from War and Peace

Daily Zen Quote - December 12, 2015

“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