Zen Quotes

It's a relationship like to a crusty Zen master, or something like that. And it is really like another entity because you cannot predict the answers.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

In Zen we have no gurus.

You're not listening to the Zen master, what he is saying outwardly, but even more importantly...what he is saying inwardly.

In the advanced practice, the relationship between the Zen master and the student becomes very terse. The Zen master will expect things of the student because the student is in graduate school.

So, without telling any of my Zen-snob buddies, I liked to pretend everything was the Pure Land, that my life was already perfect as it was.

The son needs the father to have access to his source, and the father needs the son to have access to the future and the infinite.

If you have mindfulness, if you feel safe, you recognize that you have plenty of conditions to be happy already, and that you don't need to run into the future in order to get a few more conditions.

Love was never meant to be contained solely in our hearts, just as life in a seed was always meant to break through into the world and become beauty to be shared.

The universe and the law of attraction speak a language that knows no words, only discerning your intent through sacrifice and what you are willing to give up.

If you want to be free of the wars of the world, begin by resolving the wars within you. If you want to see the world at peace, create peace within your mind.

Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.

All is contained within the silence of death, the quietest and the loudest sound in the universe.

I didn’t know that the times we spent together on the weekends, the times that we laughed together, and the times you helped me out was your way of silently wishing me a beautiful goodbye.

With nowhere to go, we have everywhere else to go.

Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your anger, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness.

As I naturally go through a full range of emotions in my life, I mustn’t feel ashamed for feeling lost, for it is honest and human to feel such.

Letting go takes a lot of courage sometimes. But once you let go, happiness comes very quickly. You won't have to go around search for it.

Each situation is a blossom to be picked with a curious spirit.

What we can change is our perceptions, which have the effect of changing everything.

There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.

Courage is often associated with aggression, but instead should be seen as a willingness to act from the heart.

When you blame, you open up a world of excuses, because as long as you're looking outside, you miss the opportunity to look inside, and you continue to suffer.

When you catch yourself slipping into a pool of negativity, notice how it derives from nothing other than resistance to the current situation.

In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

Shigemori's body of work is a compelling manifesto for continuous cultural renewal.

There is no other space, no other time. This moment is all. In this moment the whole existence converges, in this moment all is available.

Life is eternal game, there are no rules. Indulge yourself.

Zen movement is a meditative practice.

what is not true does not exist in this moment.

Search not for happiness outside yourself, for nothing could be further from the truth.

The awareness that seeks to know is the very object of its own seeking.

The way is not clear, and it is when you do not have clarity, when this is allowed, that you will finally have clarity.

Can you allow yourself to be impaled on the present moment?

Maybe it’s something which can’t be defined, ” Enso Roshi says. “Maybe it’s a question, to be lived.

The mind is limitless, in its creations.

Let whatever happens, be what needs to happen, so that I may awaken.

Nothing needs to be done, and things get done.

The glass is neither half empty, nor half full. The glass is just a glass and it's content can perpetually change with your perception.

The most expected thing you can expect is what's unexpected.

No ideals. No illusions. Just reality - but more perfect than you’ve ever imagined. That’s what being mindful and living in the present means.

Mindfulness helps you understand that the past is gone, can’t be changed and all the lessons are already learned.

Zen is magic. It gives you the key to open the miraculous. And the miraculous is in you and the key is also in you.

Pardon all runners, All speechless, alien winds, All mad waters.Pardon their impulses, Their wild attitudes, Their young flights, their reticence.When a message has no clothes onHow can it be spoken.

He who fights is powerless, but he who loves is power itself.