168 Zen Quotes
Following is our list of zen quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about moment of zen.
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Famous Zen Quotes
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention. — Jane Hirshfield
When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization. — Matsuo Basho
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
To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant — Taisen Deshimaru
Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment. — John Bradshaw
Zen has no secrets other than seriously thinking about life and death. — Takeda Shingen
Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. — Bodhidharma
How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? The plum tree in the garden! — Brad Warner
The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfection. — Tara Brach
The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. — Shunryu Suzuki
To practice Zen Buddhism is to train oneself to eliminate hatred, anger and selfishness and to develop loving-kindness towards all. — Thich Thien-An
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
The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. — Robert M. Pirsig
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
Always now - just now - come into being. Always now - just now - give yourself to death. Practicing this is Zen practice. — Soko Morinaga
Short 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
- Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself. — Matsuo Basho
- 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
- Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. — Nhat Hanh
- The first and biggest victory of all is victory over your own self. — Enoch Adeboye
- You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself. — Alan Watts
- There is no armor more impenetrable than song. — James L. Farmer, Jr.
Zen Image Quotes
Japanese Zen Quotes
In Japanese art, space assumed a dominant role and its position was strengthened by Zen concepts. — Stephen Gardiner
My favorite piece of technical writing: Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind. — Robert M. Pirsig
The Japanese have become so smitten with the Western condiment - its texture as silky as a kimono, its tang as understated as the tang of Zen - that today they have a word for mayonnaise junkie: mayora. — Tom Robbins
As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions”. Drop your theories; don't seek the truth. — Anthony De Mello
The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice. — Shunryu Suzuki
I've been studying the cultures of Asia for many years, and I'm very attracted to the culture of Japan, in particular to the impact Zen has had on the Japanese mind and spirit. — John McLaughlin
The productivity of people requires continuous learning, as the Japanese have taught us. It requires adoption in the West of the specific Japanese Zen concept where one learns to do better what one already does well. — Peter Drucker
Tantric Zen is for someone who is really broad-minded. It is Bodhidharma's Zen, your Zen, my Zen. Which doesn't mean I have a problem with Japanese Zen. Most Japanese Zen is minding your p's and q's. — Frederick Lenz
If you're very, very conservative and you like that sort of practice, go find a very conservative Zen master and just do traditional Japanese practice, which is not that traditional actually. — Frederick Lenz
Moment Of Zen 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
Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort, moment after moment, is our way. — Shunryu Suzuki
Every place is a place to practice. Every time is a time to practice. Zen is concerned with the thought we have this moment rather than with rituals or rules of behavior — Bill Porter
Think of Zen, of the Void, of Good and Evil and you are bound hand and foot. Think only and entirely and completely of what you are doing at the moment and you are free as a bird. — Reginald Horace Blyth
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
A time of uncertainty, of not knowing exactly where we're headed, or what kind of choice to make is a Zen moment. — Brenda Shoshanna
Whether you are cooking, cleaning house, or planting flowers, try to concentrate on the textures, the smells, colors, tastes, sounds, all Zen moments of focused joy. — Jerry Lynch
I was talking to a Zen master the other day and he said, "You shall be my disciple."I looked at him and said, "Who was Buddha's teacher?" He looked at me in a very odd way for a moment and then he burst into laughter and handed me a piece of clover. — Alan Watts
Here it is. My moment of zen. — Jon Stewart
Buddhist Zen Quotes
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
In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves. — Abraham Joshua Heschel
Mind is everything. What we think, we become. — Buddha
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
Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. — Buddha
Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everythiong else. — Buddha
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
The greatest effort is not concerned with results. — Atisa
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. — Buddha
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
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
One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world. — Dogen
I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. — Buddha
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. — Nhat Hanh
Zen Buddhism does not preach. Sermons remain words. It waits until people feel stifled and insecure, driven by a secret longing. — Eugen Herrigel
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
Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. — Buddha
Zen Buddhist Quotes
If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? — Dogen
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. — Shunryu Suzuki
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 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 set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind. — Sengcan
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! — Nikki Sixx
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. — D.T. Suzuki
Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. His luminous presence and the simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives. — Joanna Macy
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. — M. Scott Peck
I'm not really hip to too much of the Zen or the Buddhist point of view, but you see I don't have to be because I just know that they're all the same, it's all the same, it's just whichever one you want to take and it happens that I'm taking the Hindu one. — George Harrison
Zen Life Quotes
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
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. — Zhuangzi
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
When the student is ready the teacher will appear. — Lao Tzu
Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. — Ray Bradbury
Many people are cruising through life doing precisely zero hours of deliberate practice. — Angela Duckworth
A zen master's life is one continuous mistake. — Dogen
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
Don't seek, don't search, don't ask, don't knock, don't demand - relax. — Osho
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
Zen Proverb Quotes
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course. — Zhuangzi
I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats. — Eckhart Tolle
What is the sound of one hand? — Hakuin Ekaku
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
To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat. — Shunryu Suzuki
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
There is no proverb that is not true. — Miguel de Cervantes
Zen Master Quotes
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing. — Dogen
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
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
The only trouble was that the scripture master, Mr. Ebenzar, was a fanatic. — R.K. Narayan
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
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
Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water. — Elizabeth Gilbert
Zen Master Dogen has pointed out that anxiety, when accepted, is the driving force to enlightenment in that it lays bare the human dilemma at the same time that it ignites our desire to break out of it. — Philip Kapleau
The Zen master walks in his garden, alone. There is no traffic there. There is no shopping there. There are only the flowers. — Frederick Lenz
Zen Motorcycle Maintenance Quotes
When you live in the shadow of insanity, the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event. — Robert M. Pirsig
If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. — Robert M. Pirsig
The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed. — Robert M. Pirsig
Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle. I think that what I have to say has more lasting value. — Robert M. Pirsig
Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. — Robert M. Pirsig
You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. — Robert M. Pirsig
If you have a high evaluation of yourself then your ability to recognize new facts is weakened. — Robert M. Pirsig
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all. — Robert M. Pirsig
If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. — Robert M. Pirsig
That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. — Robert M. Pirsig
Zen Like Quotes
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
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
Life should be touched, not strangled. — Ray Bradbury
Quality tends to fan out like waves. — Robert M. Pirsig
Crowdsourcing is the ultimate disruptor of distribution because in a most Zen-like fashion, the content is controlled by everyone and no one at the same time. — Jay Samit
The ultimate test's always your own serenity. If you don't have this when you start and maintain it while you're working you're likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself. — Robert M. Pirsig
I feel like I'm being too Zen. I'm inhaling too much patchouli and incense. It's embarrassing. — Jimmy Fallon
If you ask Zen people they will say; tea is not something that you pour with unawareness and drink like any other drink. It is not a drink, it is meditation; it is prayer. So they listen to the kettle creating a melody, and in that listening they become more silent, more alert. — Osho
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism. — Shunryu Suzuki
People Writing About Zen
| Name | Quotes | Likes |
|---|---|---|
 Matsuo Basho |
99 | 2194 |
 Taisen Deshimaru |
26 | 570 |
 Dogen |
137 | 2494 |
 Buddha |
1250 | 5513 |
 Jane Hirshfield |
120 | 341 |
 D.T. Suzuki |
78 | 900 |
More Zen Quotes
Many of the customers here are traveling all over the world so they need multiple types of clothes. That's one thing about Urban Zen - it is seasonless and it is timeless. So it's not about the fashion of a moment saying, "I have to have it now." It's something that you become a part of...sort of like a sari. — Donna Karan
We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything. That is to understand Zen. — D.T. Suzuki
There was a famous Zen master whom people would seek out to become enlightened. He was strict and would occupy people with things having nothing to do with seeking enlightenment. You see, that is the only way to achieve enlightenment; by not focusing on achieving it. Then, one day it will just come to you. — Masaaki Hatsumi
Zen opens a man's eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden — D.T. Suzuki
Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction. — Pat Flynn
When using the loo, gravity is your friend. — Tim Peake
There are no words, it’s only music there. — Antonio Vivaldi
Wherever you are, make sure you’re there. — Dan Sullivan
The biggest quest to learn anything is curiosity. If you are curious about something, you will go and dig. — Rakesh Jhunjhunwala
By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations. — Leo Babauta
Zen practice is about not getting high on anything and in so doing getting high on absolutely everything. We then find that everything we encounter - bliss or nonbliss - possesses a tremendous depth and beauty that we usually miss. — Brad Warner
Questions are infinitely superior to answers. — Dan Sullivan
I’ve always been laid back, go with the flow. — Sadie Sink
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