Zen Buddhism Quotes

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

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

Have good trust in yourself, not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.

Life is a vast, unknowable movement of wholeness with no one separate from it and nothing outside of it.

Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself.

The light is already there. In Zen Buddhism there's a little speck of dust on the mirror, and that's us.

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.

Zen purposes to discipline the mind itself, to make it its own master, through an insight into its proper nature. This getting into the real nature of one's own mind or soul is the fundamental object of Zen Buddhism. Zen, therefore, is more than meditation and Dhyana in its ordinary sense. The discipline of Zen consists in opening the mental eye in order to look into the very reason of existence.

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

Suzuki's works on Zen Buddhism are among the best contributions to the knowledge of living Buddhism... We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the author, first for the fact of his having brought Zen closer to Western understanding, and secondly for the manner in which he has achieved this task.

While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gain ing ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.

Prophecy is rash, but it may be that the publication of D.T. Suzuki's first Essays in Zen Buddhism in 1927 will seem to future generations as great an intellectual event as William of Moerbeke's Latin translations of Aristotle in the thirteenth century or Marsiglio Ficino's of Plato in the fifteenth.

Zen Buddhism does not preach. Sermons remain words. It waits until people feel stifled and insecure, driven by a secret longing.

In the early '60s there was very little reliable information on Tibetan Buddhism. I was living in London and I had joined the Buddhist Society. For the most part, people there were either interested in Theravada or Zen Buddhism. There was almost no one into Tibetan Buddhism at that time.

In Zen Buddhism, "The Great Cessation" is a term that points to the abandoning of the effort to define one's self by any outer definition and to give up acts of futility. It is to let the world remain a mystery that cannot be captured by science, language, or any invention of the mind.

In Zen Buddhism, the greater your doubt, the greater will be your enlightenment. That is why doubt can be a good thing. If you are too sure, if you always have conviction, then you may be caught in your wrong perception for a long time.

To practice Zen Buddhism is to train oneself to eliminate hatred, anger and selfishness and to develop loving-kindness towards all.

In Zen Buddhism an action is considered good when it brings happiness and well-being to oneself and others, evil when it brings suffering and harm to oneself and others.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

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.

Zen Buddhism is a discipline where belief isn't necessary.

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?

Think with your whole body.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

Well, I would have to say as a Christian that I believe any belief system, any world view, whether its Zen Buddhism or Hinduism or dialectical materialism for that matter, Marxism, that keeps persons captive and keeps them from coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, is a demonstration of satanic power.

Zen's greatest contribution is to give you an alternative to the serious man. The serious man has made the world, the serious man has made all the religions. He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serious man. Zen has dropped out of the serious world. It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children.

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.

I think about death a lot, I really do, because I can't believe I won't exist. It's the ego isn't it? I feel that I should retreat into a better form of Zen Buddhism than this kind of ego-dominated thing. But I don't know, I mean, I want to come back as a tree but I suspect that it's just not going to happen, is it?

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

What you think you become.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought; what we think we become.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

Don't hate the arising of thoughts or stop the thoughts that do arise. Simply realize that our original mind, right from the start, is beyond thought, so that no matter what, you never get involved with thoughts. Illuminate original mind, and no other understanding is necessary.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.

Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Concentrate the mind on the present moment.

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

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.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Watch your step.

When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised.