I just watched the season finale of a certain show where quotes are prominent. In that vein (and to avoid reading a few senile, senseless posts that can sometimes appear in this column), I decided to post some of my own favourite zen quotes (from (K)Ubuntuguide -- http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Quotes ) :
A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?' 'How do you not know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai. 'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered.
Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.
To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.
When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.
If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless; in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry because it can't be solved.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment. There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.
And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.
Should you desire great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.
How do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole?
It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So little time, so little to do.
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
Natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal - continuums, not absolutes.
One falling leaf is not just one leaf; it means the whole autumn.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
To set up what you like against what you don't like -- this is the disease of the mind.
No yesterday, no tomorrow. And no today.
Don't seek reality, just put an end to opinions.
Water which is too pure has no fish.
Things were never the way they used to be. -- Yogi Berra
Ten thousand flowers in spring the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
If you're attached to anything, you surely will go far astray.
Only the crystal-clear question yields a transparent answer.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort - The three qualities necessary for training.
Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw yourself from them.
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook.
A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.
Studying Zen -- learning the way -- is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing.
No ego, no pain.
Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung. -- Zen master
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
The obstacle is the path. -- Zen Proverb
The only thing I know is that I know nothing. -- Socrates
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. -- Mark Twain
I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world. -- Eugene Debs
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon
Eruditio sin commisio es par ut commisio sin eruditio. (Knowledge without action is as bad as action without knowledge.) -- perspectoff
God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.
From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am man!," our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of death itself. Tonight, we shall ascend into the heavens. We shall mock the earthquake. We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious nature herself! -- Dr. Frederick Frankenstein
A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered 'How am I supposed to know?' 'How do you not know? You're a Zen master!' exclaimed the samurai. 'Yes, but not a dead one,' Hakuin answered.
Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.
To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.
When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.
If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless; in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry because it can't be solved.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment. There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.
And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.
Should you desire great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.
How do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole?
It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
So little time, so little to do.
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
Natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal - continuums, not absolutes.
One falling leaf is not just one leaf; it means the whole autumn.
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
To set up what you like against what you don't like -- this is the disease of the mind.
No yesterday, no tomorrow. And no today.
Don't seek reality, just put an end to opinions.
Water which is too pure has no fish.
Things were never the way they used to be. -- Yogi Berra
Ten thousand flowers in spring the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
If you're attached to anything, you surely will go far astray.
Only the crystal-clear question yields a transparent answer.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort - The three qualities necessary for training.
Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw yourself from them.
Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook.
A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.
Studying Zen -- learning the way -- is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing.
No ego, no pain.
Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung. -- Zen master
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
The obstacle is the path. -- Zen Proverb
The only thing I know is that I know nothing. -- Socrates
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. -- Mark Twain
I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world. -- Eugene Debs
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon
Eruditio sin commisio es par ut commisio sin eruditio. (Knowledge without action is as bad as action without knowledge.) -- perspectoff
God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.
From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am man!," our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of death itself. Tonight, we shall ascend into the heavens. We shall mock the earthquake. We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious nature herself! -- Dr. Frederick Frankenstein
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