Uchiyama, Kosho
"Pure religion ... is the attitude of discovering the life within the self that is connected to all things. It means aiming at manifesting the life of each and every encounter, and seeing all of these encounters as our own life."
Upanishads
"As a man in union with his beloved is unaware of anything outside or inside, so a man in union with Self knows nothing, wants nothing, has foun his heart's fulfillment and is free of sorrow." (11/16/2023)
Vivekananda (Swami Vivekananda)
"The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. ... Be not afraid of anything. You will do Marvelous work. It is Fearlessness that brings Heaven even in a moment." (0815/2022)
"We are what our thoughts have made us; so take are about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far." (05/06/20222)
Voltaire
"The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing." (02/24/2022)
Vries, Peter de
"The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination, but the combination is locked up in the safe."
Wagner, Honus
"There ain't much to being a ballplayer, if you're a ballplayer." (10/24/2022)
Walsh, Neale Donald
"Your soul doesn't care what you do for a living -- and when your life is over, neither will you. Your soul cares only about what you are being while you are doing whatever you are doing." (05/25/2022) (07/05/2023)
Watts, Alan
"I had a discussion with a great master in Japan, and we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English, and he said, "That's a waste of time. If you really understand Zen, you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation. (05/10/2023)
"Nothing is more creative than death, since it is the whole secret of life. It means that the past must be abandoned, that the unknown cannot be avoided, that "I" cannot continue, and that nothing can be ultimately fixed. When a man knows this, he lives for the first time in his life. By holding his breath, he loses it. By letting go, he finds it." (03/09/2022)
"The trouble is that people spend so much energy looking for the God that they fail to see the activity which is surely a sad state of affairs. What is this activity? The rivers flow; the flowers bloom; you walk down the street. Really, we should need to say no more than this ... " (04/19/2023)
"We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment." (06/14/2022)
"You don't look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you." (03/12/2022)
"You have to cultivate an attitude to life where you're not trying to get anything out of it. You pick up a pebble on the beach, look at it, it's beautiful. Don't try and get a sermon out of it ... Just enjoy it. Don't feel that you've got to salve your conscience by saying that this is for the advancement of your aesthetic understanding. Enjoy the pebble. If you do that, you become healthy." (01/04/2022)
Wei Wu Wei
"No one becomes "enlightened." The term simply implies an absence of what-you-are-not; in other words, an awakening from the phantom-identity unto the normal state of what-you-are." (01/09/2022)
Wells, H. G.
"We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery."
White, E. B.
"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."
Whitman, Walt
"Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself.
"It is not far. It is within reach.
"Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
"Perhaps it is everywhere on water and on land." (01/14/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Why, who makes much of a miracle?
"As to me I know nothing else but miracles ...
"To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
"Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
"Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
"Every foot of the interior swarms with the same." (11/13/2023)
Wilber, Ken
"Yasutani Roshi used to explain enlightenment as -- and these are his words -- "the direct awareness that you are more than this puny body or limited mind. Stated negatively, it is the realization that the universe is not external to you. Positively, it is experiencing the universe as yourself."" (07/11/2023)
Wilde, Oscar
"The final mystery is oneself ... who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?"
Wise, Nina
"Be quiet, be still. Let the mond rest. Discover who you really are." (07/13/2022)
Wordsworth, William
"And then my heart
"with pleasure fills,
"And dances with the
"daffodil." (04/17/2022)
Wu-Men
"One instant is eternity
Eternity is the now
When you see through this one instant
You see through the One who sees." (09/05/2023)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
"If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life." (06/02/2023)
Wu Hsin
"The flower is not concerned about tomorrow.
"It does not plan.
"It does not worry about death.
"Nor does it make an effort to smell beautiful.
"The flower teaches being -- Being what one is." (05/19/2023)
Wuxi, Sixin
"Investigate what's right under your own feet. Contemplate it, get to the bottom of it. What is the truth of it?" (06/11/2022)
Yeats, William Butler
"When one is quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet like the stars." (05/15/2022)
"When one gets quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet like the stars." (11/14/2023)
Yogananda, Paramahansa
"Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become." (01/21/2022)
"Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself." (11/26/2022)
"When the mind is calm, how quickly, how smoothly, how beautifully you will perceive everything." (09/10/2022)
Yotaku, Bankei A00019
"The farther you enter into the truth, the deeper it is." (06/11/2023)
Yun, Hsing
"Meditation will not carry you to another world, but it will reveal the most profound and awesome dimensions of the world in which you already live." (06/06/2022)
Zen Koan
"Once you realize your own nature, you are free of "birth and death." When your senses are gone, how do you free yourself?" (09/19/2022)
"When you set yourself free of life and death, you should know your ultimate destination. So when the four elements separate, where will you go?" (01/26/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Zen Mondo
A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died. Hakuin answered, "How am I supposed to know?"
"How do you know? You're a Zen master!" exclaimed the samurai.
"Yes, but not a dead one," Hakuin answered. (10/29/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"One day Nan-ch'uan told Kuei-tsung and Ma-yu that he was going to take them to visit the National Teacher. Before they began their journey, Nan-ch'uan drew a circle on the road and said, "As soon as you give a right answer, we will be on our way." Immediately Kuei-tsung sat down inside the circle and Ma-yu bowed. Nan-ch'uan said: "Judging by this answer, it will not be necessary to go." (08/01/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"What is the most miraculous of all mistakes?
"That I sit quietly by myself." (05/03/2023)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"When Daisetz T. Suzuki was once asked, "What is Zen?" his answer was: "Zen is that which makes you ask the question, for the answer comes from where the question arises ... When you ask what Zen is, you are asking who you are, what your Self is. Isn't it the height of stupidity to ask what your Self is, when it is this very Self that makes you ask the question.?" (10/23/2023)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"When Governor Lu was about to return to his office, he came to say goodbye to Nan-ch'uan. The Master asked him: "Governor, you are going back to the capitol. How will you govern the people?
"The Governor replied: " I will govern them through wisdom."
"The Master remarked: "If this is true, the people will suffer for it." (10/1y/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Zen Proverb
"Consider the trees which allow the birds to perch and fly away without either inviting them to stay or desiring them never to depart. If your heart can be like this, you will be near to the Way." (09/02/2022)
"If you understand, things are just as they are. If you do not understand, things are just as they are." (10/16/2022)
"Sometimes, simply by sitting, the soul collects wisdom." (11/02/2022)
"The world is won by those who let it go."
Zen Story
"One evening a farmer was just drifting off to sleep when he heard a noise in the orchard outside. Investigating, he noticed a young man from the village up in one of his trees, stealing fruit. Quietly the farmer went into the shed where he kept his ladder and brought it to the tree so that the thief might safely climb down and slip away unharmed." (08/28/2023)
Zen Saying
"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool -- shun him.
"He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is a child -- teach him.
"He who knows, and knows not that he knows is asleepl -- wake him.
"But he who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man -- follow him." (06/29/2022)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"No seed ever sees the flower." (05/14/2023)
8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
"Your practice is your life."
Zhuang Zhou see Chuang-tzu
Zimmer, Heinrich
"Knowledge is the reward of action; for it is by doing things that one becomes transformed. Executing a symbolical gesture, actually living through, to the very limit, a particular role, one comes to realize the truth inherent in the role." (09/30/2022)
