#zen

To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging cannot be limited: even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things (your own nature), and you will walk freely and undisturbed. ↗

— Sengcan

#zen #nature

What is Zen? Zen means doing anything perfectly, making mistakes perfectly, being defeated perfectly, hesitating perfectly, doing anything perfectly or imperfectly, perfectly. What is the meaning of this perfectly? How does it differ from perfectly? Perfectly is in the will; perfectly is in the activity. Perfectly means that at each moment of the activity there is no egoism in it… our pain is not only our own pain; it is the pain of the universe. The joy of the universe is also our joy. Our failure and misjudgment is that of nature, which never hopes or despairs, but keeps on trying. R. H. Blyth ↗

— R.H. Blyth

#nature

The real ugliness lies in the relationship between people who produce the technology and the things they produce, which results in a similar relationship between the people who use the technology and the things they use. ↗

— Robert M. Pirsig

#relationship #technology #zen #relationship

A boddhisattva is someone who is on the way to becoming a buddha. All of us become boddhisattvas as soon as we start to take our Zen work seriously and the work we do contributes to creating a world in which all good actions become more efficacious. ↗

— David Brazier

#religion #zen #religion

I'd rather feel something for real than pretend it's not what it is. Which Zen guy said "If you want to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water"? ↗

— A.S. King

#great-story #teenage #young-adult #young-adult-fiction #zen

This accidental meeting of possibilities calls itself I. I ask: what am I doing here? And, at once, this I becomes unreal. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjöld

#self #zen #zen

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. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjöld

#path #zen #zen

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

— Gary Snyder

#dharma #gary #mind #snyder #zen

Then we’re just sitting there, staring at each other. Which has been happening a lot lately. It’s like whatever wall there was between us, however she was holding herself back from me . . . all of that pretense is gone. “And when you find a soul mate,” Sara says, “it’s undeniable. You have to be together.” “That’s my philosophy.” I look back at her. “You have to go with the flow.” “Exactly. I think the universe guides you to make the right choices.” “Do you believe in fate?” “I guess, but . . . it’s more about creating the life you want so you can make that fate a reality. You know? ↗

— Susane Colasanti

#life #love #philosophy #relationships #zen

Too lazy to be ambitious, I let the world take care of itself. Ten days' worth of rice in my bag; a bundle of twigs by the fireplace. Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment? Listening to the night rain on my roof, I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out. ↗

— Ryokan

#buddhist #hermit #japan #japanese #monk