·
The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is
so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a
great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.
·
This is the real secret of life — to be
completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of
calling it work, realize it is play.
·
Life and love generate effort, but effort will
not generate them. Faith in life, in other people, and in oneself, is the
attitude of allowing the spontaneous to be spontaneous, in its own way and in
its own time.
·
There is no formula for generating the authentic
warmth of love. It cannot be copied.
·
Everyone has love, but it can only come out when
he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love
himself.
·
Meditation is the discovery that the point of
life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.
·
The only Zen you’ll find on mountain tops is the
Zen you bring up there with you.
·
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.
·
But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you
go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand
that you’re connected with everything.
·
To be free from convention is not to spurn it
but not to be deceived by it.
·
Problems that remain persistently insoluble should
always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
·
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.
·
There will always be suffering. But we must not
suffer over the suffering.
