Zen Quotes

The importance and unimportance of the self cannot be exaggerated.

Your life today is the result of a series of decisions you made that have caused you to arrive where you are.

You may wonder which came first: the skill or the hard work. But that's a moot point. The Zen master cleans his own studio. So should you.

Quality... you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is.

When you get there, there isn't any there there.

To be a good Zen Buddhist it is not enough to follow the teaching of its founder; we have to experience the Buddha's experience.

When you've understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can't understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom.

Regarding the creative: never assume you're the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you're masterful.

Silence is the language of Om. We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.

Letting go is the lesson. Letting go is always the lesson. Have you ever noticed how much of our agony is all tied up with craving and loss?

The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens.

What determines each person's state of happiness or unhappiness is not the event itself, but what the event means to that person.

There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.

There are things that I value now that I didn't when I first went over there, like Zen Buddhism, which has become part of my life over the last couple years.

You grow, learn, and the more I can sit in silence and be comfortable with myself, the more I can make noise, as ironic and Zen Buddhist and satanic as it sounds!

In Zen Buddhism an action is considered good when it brings happiness and well-being to oneself and others, evil when it brings suffering and harm to oneself and others.

Like the moon on the water, in a way. When you confront a Zen master, what you're really seeing are not his limitations but yours.

Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that's exactly the way we want it to be.

You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past and leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely.

When mountain-climbing is made too easy, the spiritual effect the mountain exercises vanishes into the air.

The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself.

I've been in these tabloids for 14 years now, and at some point you just become a Zen master of it all

The more you look, the more you see.

And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good— Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

Every man possesses the Buddha-nature. Do not demean yourselves.

The three elements of creativity are thus: loving, knowing, and doing - or heart, mind, and hands - or, as Zen Buddhist teaching has it; great faith, great question, and great courage.

But for the first time, I had a religious identity. I had come home. And so I called myself a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18.

Hand over your responses to the man who triggers them, and you have already lost the battle for self. Look beyond, and find yourself there instead.

There is only one way to achieve lasting happiness. That is simply: Be happy.

Whatever the world dishes up, we take it on--not on our own terms, but on the world's.

Humility before the flower at the timber line is the gate which gives access to the path up the open fell.

In your big mind, everything has the same value...In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood

The present is always the best, even when its rough.

The prospect of future lives in remote heavens as a compensation for the inadequacy of our present lives is a bad tradeoff for losing out on the present.

Stress comes from the way you relate to events or situations.

Zazen is better than a home. Zazen is a home that you can't ever lose.

The true source of happiness is within each of us.

The thinking brain influences the body’s responses and it makes a neat little loop.

There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden.

What is Tantric Zen? Well, I don't think I can give you a straight answer, since I don't happen to be a very straight Zen master.

And finally, be assured that Zen asks nothing even as it promises nothing. One can be a Protestant Zen Buddhist, a Catholic Zen Buddhist or a Jewish Zen Buddhist. Zen is a quiet thing. It listens.

There is really only one Zen Master ... and that's yourself.

What are you, Zen Master Fang?

Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions.

The light is already there. In Zen Buddhism there's a little speck of dust on the mirror, and that's us.

The Zen Master was constantly attempting to break up concepts that people had about what it was like to be a spiritual teacher. We have a traditional image. Each Zen master was a complete character.

I steeled myself for the next response. I knew it was going to be one of the Zen life lessons. [...] Instead he kissed me.

The Zen master can see precisely what it will take to cause your awareness to become free. But the Zen master can't do it for you.

From my own personal encounters and studies with both Tantric and Zen Buddhist monks, I have found them to be humorous, warm, charming, and compassionate.

According to Zen Buddhist cosmology there are ten thousand different states of mind to view and understand life through.