#zen

"I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats."

"If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?"

"Because even among contrarians, I’m a contrarian. But all of this is just words of bronze, third place rhetoric. What do I really mean when I say we want to shock society into awareness? Do we mean we want more originality and individuality? Less TV, more reading, writing, actual thinking? Less sheep, more shepherd pie? Yes, yes, and a little more pie, please. Oh, and some more sweet tea, too"

"The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method?"

"A student, filled with emotion and crying, implored, "Why is there so much suffering?"Suzuki Roshi replied, "No reason."

"Who we are now is all that really matters."

"Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it."

"Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen."

"I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color--something which exists before all forms and colors appear... No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea."

"The more you know, the less you need."

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.I'll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grassthe world is too full to talk about."

"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."

"To preserve the silence within--amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens--no matter how many tramp across the parade ground in whirling dust under an arid sky."

"To Do Today, 1/17/081. Sit and think2. Reach enlightenment3. Feed the cats"

"The effects you will have on your students are infinite and currently unknown; you will possibly shape the way they proceed in their careers, the way they will vote, the way they will behave as partners and spouses, the way they will raise their kids."

"It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable."

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few"

"When the mind is exhausted of images, it invents its own."

"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."

"But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind."