What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset. — Crowfoot
Life comes when you have knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, when you can see for real, touch, and feel for real, know for real. Then you are truly living. — RZA
Life is worth Living
Through every grain of it,
From the foundations
To the last edge
Of the cornerstone, death. — William Ernest Henley
Life is something that everyone should try at least once. — Henry Tillman
Life is movement. The more life there is, the more flexibility there is. The more fluid you are, the more you are alive. — Arnaud Desjardins
Life means that I can live to see tomorrow. — Ieyasu Tokugawa
Life is short is what some niggaz said; not if you measure life - by how one lives and what he did. — Nas
Life is a prize, but to live doesn't mean you're alive — Nicki Minaj
Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be. — Eleanor Roosevelt
Zen Life Image Quotes
For what it's worth: it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and, if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.
What Is Zen Quotes
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one's humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity. — D.T. Suzuki
Mind is everything. What we think, we become. — Buddha
Fish sense, applied in the field, is what the old Zen masters would call enlightenment: simply the ability to see what's right there in front of you without having to sift through a lot of thoughts and theories and, yes, expensive fishing tackle. — John Gierach
Never be a prisoner of your past. It was just a lesson, not a life sentence.
This is what Zen means by being detached—not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling is not sticky or blocked, and through whom the experiences of the world pass like the reflections of birds flying over water. — Alan Watts
Zen is a way of liberation, concerned not with discovering what is good or bad or advantageous, but what is. — Alan Watts
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people's book and write your own.
A true Zen saying: "Nothing is what I want. — Frank Zappa
One Zen master said, The whole universe is my true personality. This is a very wonderful saying... If you want to see what you truly are, open the window, and everything you see is in fact the expression of your inner reality. Can you embrace all of it? — Adyashanti
What is Zen? Simple, simple, so simple. Infinite gratitude toward all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility to all things future. — Huston Smith
So round and round you go, spinning mental wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get traction. What the hell...is it? — Robert M. Pirsig
Zen Quotes
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. — Dogen
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? — Dogen
Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. — Confucius
Some days I wish I could go back in life. Not to change anything, but to feel a few things twice.
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing. — Dogen
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself. — Matsuo Basho
However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them? — Buddha
If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. — Buddha
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others. — Buddha
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course. — Zhuangzi
Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. — Bodhidharma
Zen Buddhism Quotes
Have good trust in yourself,
not in the One that you think you should be,
but in the One that you are. — Taizan Maezumi
Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself. — Bernie Glassman
In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
Getting knocked down in life is a given. Getting up and moving forward is a choice.
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. — Alan Watts
Life is a vast, unknowable movement of wholeness with no one separate from it and nothing outside of it. — Toni Packer
Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary. — David Sylvian
The secret to living well and longer is: eat half, walk double, laugh triple and love without measure.
To practice Zen Buddhism is to train oneself to eliminate hatred, anger and selfishness and to develop loving-kindness towards all. — Thich Thien-An
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. — Buddha
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun. — Alan Watts
One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world. — Dogen
Zen Like Quotes
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. — Nhat Hanh
I feel like Zoom is not a part of Zoom anymore. Zoom belongs to the world now. — Eric Yuan
If you try to grasp Zen in movement, it goes into stillness. If you try to grasp Zen in stillness, it goes into movement. It is like a fish hidden in a spring, drumming up waves and dancing independently. — Linji Yixuan
Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip top if you must, but take the step.
Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. — Ray Bradbury
To say one is revolutionary is a little like saying one is a Zen Buddhist - if you say you are, you probably aren't. — Lawrence Ferlinghetti
When a garden is used as a place to pause for thought, that is when a Zen garden comes to life. When you contemplate a garden like this it will form as lasting impression on your heart. — Muso Soseki
Don't wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to enjoy your life.
Life should be touched, not strangled. — Ray Bradbury
To an experienced Zen Buddhist, asking if one believes in Zen or one believes in the Buddha, sounds a little ludicrous, like asking if one believes in air or water. Similarly Quality is not something you believe in, Quality is something you experience. — Robert M. Pirsig
To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat. — Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Buddhist Quotes
Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. — Buddha
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. — Taisen Deshimaru
Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everythiong else. — Buddha
Don't compare your life to others. There's no comparison between the sun and the moon. They shine when it's their time.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results. — Atisa
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. — Buddha
If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? — Dogen
Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also makes music.
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. — Shunryu Suzuki
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. — Buddha
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not of the East, nor of the West....
My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. — Rumi
To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind. — Sengcan
Zen Proverb Quotes
Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space? — D.T. Suzuki
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. — Zhuangzi
When the student is ready the teacher will appear. — Lao Tzu
Failure are part of life. If you don't fail, you don't learn. If you don't learn you'll never change.
I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats. — Eckhart Tolle
To follow the path look to the master follow the master walk with the master see through the master become the master. — Sengcan
Those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know. — Michael Lewis
When you get there, there isn't any there there. — Gertrude Stein
Zen phrase says The instant you speak about a thing you miss the mark. — Fritjof Capra
The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. — Sengcan
Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment. — John Bradshaw
The key to finding happiness in this life is realizing that the only way to overcome is to transcend; to find happiness in the simple pleasures, to master the art of just being. — Brianna Wiest
At Patagonia, making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when you do everything else right'. — Yvon Chouinard
How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? The plum tree in the garden! — Brad Warner
The only trouble was that the scripture master, Mr. Ebenzar, was a fanatic. — R.K. Narayan
A zen master's life is one continuous mistake. — Dogen
In deep self acceptance, grows a compassionate understanding. — Sayings
Nonresistance, nonjudgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living. — Eckhart Tolle
The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfection. — Tara Brach
A Zen master, when asked where he would go after he died, replied, 'To Hell, for that's where help is needed most.' — Philip Kapleau
When one is seized with a passion to understand one’s self, one has to leave behind all normal life and habitual modes of thought. — R.K. Narayan
Many people are cruising through life doing precisely zero hours of deliberate practice. — Angela Duckworth
Zen has no secrets other than seriously thinking about life and death. — Takeda Shingen
Zen is not “attained” by mirror-wiping mediation, but by “self-forgetfulness in the existential 'present' of life here and now.” We do not “come”, we “are.” Don't strive to become, but be. — Bruce Lee
Zen wants us to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature. This is because Zen has come to the definite conclusion that the ordinary logical process of reasoning is powerless to give final satisfaction to our deepest spiritual needs. — D.T. Suzuki
The central benefit of Zen, in the context of ordinary ups and downs of life,is not in preventing the minus and promoting the plus,but in directing people to the fundamental reality that is not under the sway of ups and downs. — Muso Soseki
Walking is Zen, sitting is Zen. Then what will be the quality? Watchfully alert, joyously unmotivated, centered, loving, flowing, one walks. And the walking is sauntering. Loving, alert, watchful, one sits, unmotivated - not sitting for anything in particular, just enjoying how beautiful just sitting doing nothing is, how relaxing, how restful. — Osho
The real goal of Zen is to find a way of life that's easy and undramatic. Strong attachments lead to upset and drama. — Brad Warner
Real Freedom is to not feel limited when wearing this Zen robe, this troublesome formal robe. Similarly, in our busy life we should wear this civilization without being bothered by it, without ignoring it, without being caught by it. — Shunryu Suzuki
People get stuck a lot because they're afraid to act; in the worst case,...we get so attached to some end result that we can't function. We need help just to move on, only life doesn't wait. — Bernie Glassman
Zen, in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world. — D.T. Suzuki
Zen is the way of complete self-realization; a living human being who follows the way of Zen can attain satori and then live a new life as a Buddha. — Zenkei Shibayama
We take life for granted, sleepwalking until a shattering event knocks us awake. Zen says, don't wait until the car accident, the cancer diagnosis, or the death of a loved one to get your priorities straight. Do it now. — Philip Toshio Sudo
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. — Matthew Sweet
To practice Zen means to realize one's existence in the beauty and clarity of this present moment, rather than letting life unravel in useless daydreaming of the past and future. — John Daishin Buksbazen
The life of Zen begins, therefore, in a disillusion with the pursuit of goals which do not really exist the good without the bad, the gratification of a self which is no more than an idea, and the morrow which never comes. — Alan Watts
I have developed a Zen-like approach to the operating systems that people use: 'When you're ready, the right operating system will appear in your life. — Guy Kawasaki
Life shoould be touched, not strangled. You've got to relax, let it happen at times, and at other move forward with it. — Ray Bradbury
I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it. — Robert M. Pirsig
Zen is just a lifestyle, your everyday life. It is doing your best at your job, relationships, health, hobbies, and other daily activities! — Mika
This particular school of Zen has always considered itself the Marines of the spiritual world, so it has a kind of bias against conceptual thinking in favor of a very rigorous physical life. — Leonard Cohen
While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing. — Natalie Goldberg
I had been reading this book about Zen Koan philosophy, and it was talking about the right here and the right now, and how important it is, and I was really trying to get there in my life. — Sammy Hagar
I think real enlightenment is total sanity, a kind of acceptance of what actually is. It does involve a kind of different way of looking at things. As I've done this Zen practice for years and years, I've acquired what I realize is an almost upside down view of life compared to what most people think, which is just what I used to think it was too. It's not really an insane view, at least I hope it's not. — Brad Warner
I got interested in Zen when I was a teenage beatnik on the streets of San Francisco. And it was my interest in Zen, in part, that got me into the Marine Corps, because that was a ticket to Asia. So I spent a couple of years on Okinawa and began reading and thinking about how I wanted to go about conducting my life. — Sam Hamill
All I have to do is find someone who has something to say that will enrich my life and they can't get rid of me. — Cicely Tyson
In Conclusion
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