quotations about Zen
No one is ever more him/herself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open.
GEORGE CARLIN
Last Words
George Carlin (May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, and author. Known for his dark comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and taboo subjects, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians".
Zen, like life, defies exact definition, but its essence is the experience, moment by moment, of our own existence -- a natural, spontaneous encounter, unclouded by the suppositions and expectations that come between us and reality. It is, if you like, a paring down of life until we see it as it really is, free from our illusions; it is merely a divestment of ourselves until we recognize our own true nature.
DAVID FONTANA
Discover Zen
David Fontana (1 November 1934 - 18 October 2010) was a British psychologist, parapsychologist and author. He served as the first president of the British Psychological Society's Transpersonal Section and wrote on such topics as Buddhism, meditation, dreams, symbols, the psychology of religion, Christianity and survival.
Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
ALAN WATTS
The Way of Zen
Alan Watts (6 January 1915 - 16 November 1973) was a British writer and speaker known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. He introduced the emerging hippie counterculture to The Way of Zen (1957) and explored human consciousness and psychedelics in works such as The New Alchemy (1958) and The Joyous Cosmology (1962).
Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.
HUANG PO
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po
HUANG PO (died 850) was an influential Chinese master of Zen Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty. He was given the posthumous title of "Chan Master Without Limits".
Zen is really extraordinarily simple as long as one doesn't try to be cute about it or beat around the bush! Zen is simply the sensation and the clear understanding ... that there is behind the multiplicity of events and creatures in this universe simply one energy -- and it appears as you, and everything is it. The practice of Zen is to understand that one energy so as to "feel it in your bones."
ALAN WATTS
What Is Zen?
Alan Watts (6 January 1915 - 16 November 1973) was a British writer and speaker known for interpreting and popularizing Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism for a Western audience. He introduced the emerging hippie counterculture to The Way of Zen (1957) and explored human consciousness and psychedelics in works such as The New Alchemy (1958) and The Joyous Cosmology (1962).
Zen is a philosophy of action. That means it isn't just a philosophy you read about and think about. It's a philosophy you do.
BRAD WARNER
Hardcore Zen
Brad Warner (born March 5, 1964) is an American Sōtō Zen monk, author, blogger, documentarian and punk rock bass guitarist.
There are in Zen no sacred books or dogmatic tenets, nor are there any symbolic formulae through which an access might be gained into the signification of Zen. If I am asked, then, what Zen teaches, I would answer, Zen teaches nothing. Whatever teachings there are in Zen, they come out of one's own mind. We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.
DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI
An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
D. T. Suzuki (11 November 1870 - 12 July 1966) was a Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in Far Eastern philosophy to the West. He was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature. Suzuki was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963.
Zen is not a body of dogma but a way of clarifying and enhancing consciousness.
THOMAS CLEARY
Zen Antics: One Hundred Stories of Enlightenment
Thomas Cleary (born 1949) is an author and translator of more than 80 books related to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Muslim classics, as well as The Art of War, a treatise on management, military strategy, and statecraft.
What we can change is our perceptions, which have the effect of changing everything.
DONNA QUESADA
Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to Inspire Teachers
Donna Quesada is an instructor of Eastern spiritual philosophy and Kundalini Yoga. She took her Buddhist precepts with Nyogen Yeo Roshi in 2005, the last successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and the abbot of Hazy Moon Zen Center of Los Angeles.
You don't think your way back to joy; you open to it.
DONNA QUESADA
Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to Inspire Teachers
Donna Quesada is an instructor of Eastern spiritual philosophy and Kundalini Yoga. She took her Buddhist precepts with Nyogen Yeo Roshi in 2005, the last successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and the abbot of Hazy Moon Zen Center of Los Angeles.