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| In a dark time, the eye begins to see. Theodore Roethke |
When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. Shunryu Suzuki |
| The mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickenson |
I am what I am and that's what I am. Popeye |
| If a man should conquer in battle a thousand and a thousand more, and another man should conquer himself, his would be the greater victory, because the greatest of victories is the victory over oneself. The Dhammapada |
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one's own self. Montaigne |
| Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. Kahlil Gibran |
The value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self. Albert Einstein |
| If I could have two things in one: The peace of the grave, and the light of the sun. Edna St. Vincent Millay |
At any given moment, I open my eyes and exist. And before that, during all eternity, what was there? Nothing. Ugo Betti |
| What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific of one's own being alone. Henry David Thoreau |
When you ride in a boat and watch the moving shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine many things with a confused mind, you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. But when you practice intimacy and return to where you are, it will be clear that there is nothing that has unchanging self. Dogen |
| As I was going up the stair I met a man who wasn't there, He wasn't there again today. I wish to God he'd go away. Hughes Mearns |
Silently time passes. the only life I have submits to its power. Hatsui Shizue |
| I've opened shop this time on the banks of the Kamo. Customers, sitting idly, forget host and guest. They drink a cup of tea, their long sleep is over; awake they realize they're the same as before. Baisao |
Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world: a star at dawn, a bauble in a stream; a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream. The Buddha |
| The great end of life is not knowledge but action. Thomas Henry Huxley |
If you scramble about in search of inner peace, you will lose your inner peace. Lao-Tzu |
| In an utter emptiness anything can take place. John Cage |
We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake. Diogenes |
| If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Friedrich Nietzsche |
See as if for the first time a beautiful person or an ordinary object. Shiva |
| The purpose of a fish trap is to catch a fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to. Chuang-Tzu |
Kakua wen to China to study, and he spent his time meditating constantly. Whenever anyone asked him to preach he would say a few words and then move deeper into the mountain. After many years he returned to Japan, and he was summoned by the emperor. When asked about what he learned Kakua stood in silence, and then, finally, produced a flute from his robe. He blew one short note, bowed politely, and disappeared. Zen Story |
| Every moment is nothing without end. Octavio Paz |
The priest Sung-yuan said, "why does the enlightened man not stand on his feet and explain himself?" And he said, " It is not with the tongue that you speak." Zen Koan |
| Each day should be passed as though it were our last. Pubilius Syrus |
Our father which art in heaven stay there and we will stay on earth which is sometimes so pretty. Jacques Prevert |
| If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. if it is still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it is not so boring but very interesting. Zen Saying |
"What should one do when one does not take up a single thing?" Yen-yang asked Chao-chou. "Put it down," Chao-chou replied. "If you do not take anything, how can you put it down?" "Then carry it with you." Zen Mondo |
| Dare to be naive. R. Buckminster Fuller |
Being, not doing, is my first joy. Theodore Roethke |
| The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. this puts one in accord wtih nature, in her manner of operation. John Cage |
We dance around in a ring and suppose, but the Secret sits in the middle and knows. Robert Frost |
| All Buddhas and ordinary people are just in one mind....This mind is beyond all measurements, names, oppositions: this very being is it; as soon as you stir your mind you turn away from it. Huang-Po |
Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities. William Bridges |
| We are all deep in a hell each moment of which is a miracle. E.M. Cioran |
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. Lin Yu-t'ang |
| A monk asked Ts'ui-wei about the meaning of Buddhism. Ts'ui-wei answered:"Wait until there is no one around, and I will tell you." Some time later the monk approached Ts-ui'wei again, saying:"There is nobody here now. Please answer me." Ts'ui-wei led him out into the garden and went over to the bamboo grove, saying nothing. Still the monk did not understand, so at last Ts'ui-wei said: "Here is a tall bamboo; there is a short one!" Zen Parable |
The knowledge of the ancients was perfect. How perfect? At first, they did not know that there were things. This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next they knew that there were things, but did not yet make distinctions between them. Next, they made distinctions between them, but they did not yet pass judgements upon them. When judgements were passed, Tao was destroyed. Chuang-tzu |
| He who knows how to shave the razor, will know how to erase the eraser. Henri Michaux |
Talking about Zen all the time is like looking for fish tracks in a dry riverbed. Wu-tzu |
| If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. Lin-chi |
The Buddha-teaching must be relinquished: how much more so misteaching. Jack Kerouac |
| With all your science can you tell how it is, that light comes into the soul? Henry David Thoreau |
Every day, priests minutely examine the Dharma and endlessly chant complicated sutras. Before doing that, though, they should learn how to read the love the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon. Ikkyu |
| 1. Get enough food to eat and eat it. 2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet, and sleep there. 3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself, and listen to it. 4. Richard Brautigan |
In all ten directions of the universe, there is only one truth. when we see clearly, the great teachings are the same. What can ever be lost? What can be attained? If we attain something, it was there from the beginning of time. If we lose something, it is hiding somewhere near us. Look: this ball in my pocket: can you see how priceless it is? Ryokan |
| The truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion. Kahlil Gibran |
Abandoning things is superior, pursuing things is inferior. Yen-T'ou |
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