Taisen Deshimaru Quotes
Human beings are afraid of dying. They are always running after something: money, honor, and pleasure. But if you had to die now, what would you want?
To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant
You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair.
The body moves naturally, automatically, without any personal intervention or awareness. If we think too much, our actions become slow and hesitant.
In a fight between a strong technique and a strong body, technique will prevail. In a fight between a strong mind and a strong technique, mind will prevail, because it will find the weak point.
You cannot separate any part from the whole: interdependence rules the cosmic order.
Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I say, "I do not think, that is why I exist."
We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.
Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.
During zazen, brain and consciousness become pure. It's exactly like muddy water left to stand in a glass. Little by little, the sediment sinks to the bottom and the water becomes pure.
Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance.
If we achieve satori and the satori shows, like a bit of dogshit stuck to the top of our nose, that is not so good.
