Frederick Lenz Quotes

Sitting around idly contemplating doesn't produce much. In work you can discipline your attention, forget about your misery.

The day-to-day life we lead has nothing to do with enlightenment. It is just around the corner, and we don't see it.

If President Bush does a lousy job, then he'll lose power. If the guy at McDonalds who's selling burgers does a great job, then he'll be much more powerful than President Bush.

A better name for nirvana might be endless love. Love not even in the sense that we see it if we're watching the romantic movie, but love in a sense of no absence.

I have not in this lifetime yet met one person who earnestly seeks enlightenment in the West. Not one person.

What we do outwardly will only interrupt the flow of our perfect attention is it is not in harmony with the dharma.

Stop trying to be different. Just do what you are good at, and work really hard. You have to work hard to be chaos.

The best form of meditation is the sitting meditation. But work is next. Work is a great way to meditate.

If you are mindful in your work, if you put your best effort into it, then something comes back to you.

It is necessary to have a strong focus. Work will give you that focus.

Thought control is the ability to direct mind and attention anywhere.

From the point of view of enlightenment, none of this has ever even been. All time and space, all the conditions that are apparent in the absence of enlightenment are unreal.

You are going to die. Your physical body will disintegrate. You cannot help that.

We dream forever unless we awaken. We move from one dream to another, some beautiful, some we're the hero or the heroine, some horrible, some nonsensical, some boring.

As long as you wish to separate yourself from the immortal consciousness, you will suffer. You will experience the pain of the separation, the abridgment of infinite mind in finite form.

Anything but enlightenment is pure pain; it is the lack of enlightenment.

Everybody here is so caught up in the game of life they don't see death. They don't see beyond their deaths. They are on the wheel of birth and death.

It is much nicer to live in perfect mind, free from pain and agony. How painful it is to be unenlightened. Buddha called it "the nightmare of the day."

You cannot be born and you cannot die. You will exist in a universe that goes on forever. That is the ultimate horror from the Zen point of view. You could be unhappy forever.

Who needs to go the horror movies? Just go outside or turn on the TV. Buddha called it the "nightmare of the day." Welcome to incarnate experience.

Your mind is filled with thoughts and desires. Your moods shift constantly. You are not sure what it is you want, it changes from moment to moment; there is little or no continuity in your life.

Most people lead lives of frustration and disapointment. They enjoy temporary pleasures and long-lasting suffering.

There is suffering and there is joy. Your life is very short, and then you're back again for another and another, forever, unless you step off the wheel.

As I'm sure you know by now, most people aren't really very happy. Beyond their surface appearances, the smiles they wear for the rest of the world, most people are soul-sick.

There is nothing wrong with the world of physicality. There is nothing wrong with existence. It's perfect ... but it's terribly transient.

Enlightenment means that you're in love with all of life, with not only immortality but mortality.

I see people driving cars, winding down the streets. I don't know where these people think they're going. They're going to the funeral home; that's about it.

People don't really want to know the truth. The truth is that you are all dead in the future, everything that you do has no point, and all of the achievements of the human race are meaningless.

The world is futile when viewed through the persona of the body. The body is not simply the physical body but it's the body of knowledge of this world.

Enlightenment means that you're living fully, and it means that you die fully. And then you go beyond life and death completely, everything, nothing, all, and beyond all.

You have but a short time to live in this world. As you age, you will experience the pains of aging. If your hopes and joys rest upon the body, then you will suffer greatly.

It is possible to move to an enlightened state of mind from a lower bardo or level of awareness. It can happen, but it is extremely unlikely.

Think about what is in front of you, if you must think.

You don't have to do anything to meditate. That's what makes it so difficult. Everybody wants to do something.

Mindfulness is the ability to do physical things in a harmonious way; it is a way to remain centered in a physical world that is out of balance.

Mindfulness is the direct application of Buddhist teachings to a physical event, a way of doing or accomplishing something, or a way of thinking and viewing something.

We are so absorbed in our thoughts that every thought that comes through is a reality. We have to start to detach ourselves from thought and become aware that there are things beyond thought.

In the state of emptiness, you are the action not the performer of the action. Allow an activity or event to take precedence over your own point of view.

When we practice mindfulness, our nonphysical side merges with the nonphysical side of that which we are experiencing.

Our actions and experiences will direct us. In other words, we will be guided by the inherent emptiness of the things we choose to interact with.

We have ideas of God and nirvana or truth or enlightenment. These ideas will go away in nirvana because the suffusion is so complete and intense that nothing can be remembered.

The unlimited mind, the diamond mind of the Buddha, is your mind, if you can get in touch with it. Stop thinking so much and tap into that psychic part of your being.

No matter how many times you have failed you must keep going forward. Only when you have become humble will you begin to grasp the meaning of life.

The idea that reincarnation means all beings eventually reach enlightenment is not true. Life does not have a fixed purpose. It just is.

The life of an unenlightened person is filled with suffering.

Nirvana is very funny. It's not sincere particularly. It's rather frivolous, actually.

None of this matters a bit. Yet, of course, it matters at that moment. So we try to be mindful of the moment; but it's fleeting.

Just see beauty as you walk around through your day. Feel things. Unhook from your thoughts and all the busy things you are doing. Start to look at life. This is mindfulness.

Stop worrying about tomorrow. Stop thinking about yesterday. Mindfulness is to be here now, in the moment. Focus on this moment.

Look at how beautiful life is, and just keep looking until you see it. You don't see what is in front of you because you're so distracted by your thoughts.