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Zen Quotes

Zen Quotes of Zen Masters

You don't throw off your burdens even when you go to bed; you are busy with illusions. - Yakusan
The inner emptiness is the door to God. - Osho
When no discriminating thoughts arise,
the old mind ceases to exist. - Sosan
Discrimination with no-mind is right. Discrimination with mind is Wrong. When one transcends right and wrong, he is truly right. - Bodhidharma
Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself. - Ryokan
Sitting silently, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself. - Basho
When I am hungry I eat, and when I am thirsty I drink. - Bankei
If you wish to see the truth
Then hold no opinion for or against.
The struggle of what one likes
And what one dislikes
Is the disease of the mind. - Sosan
The real way is not difficult.
It only abhors choice and attachment. - Joshu
Except your awareness, all is accidental. Pain and pleasure, success and failure, fame and defamation -- all is accidental. Only your witnessing consciousness is essential. Stick to it! Get more and more rooted in it. And don't spread your attachment to worldly things. - Osho
To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings and keeping precepts are all useless. - Bodhidharma
When you are silent, it speaks;
When you speak, it is silent. - Yoka
Do not search for the truth;
only cease to hold opinions. - Sosan
When practitioners of Zen fail to transcend
the world of their senses and thoughts,
all they do has no value. - Huang Po
When you observe your delusions, you will know that they are baseless and not dependable. In this way you can cut confusion and doubt. This is what i call wisdom. - Bodhidharma
Stop talking and thinking,
And there is nothing
You will not be able to know. - Sosan
To attain enlightenment you have to see your nature. unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause and effect is nonsense. buddhas don't practice nonsense. a buddha is free of karma, free of cause and effect. to say he attains anything at all is to slander a buddha. what could he possibly attain? Even focusing on a mind, a power, an understanding or a view is impossible for a buddha. a buddha isn't one-sided. the nature of his No-Mind is basically empty, neither pure nor impure. he's free of practice and realization. he's free of cause and effect. A buddha doesn't observe precepts. a buddha doesn't do good or evil. a buddha isn't energetic or lazy. a buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can't even focus his mind on a buddha. Bodhidharma
Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality. - Hui Neng
If you don't find a teacher soon, you'll live this life in vain. it's true, you have the buddha-nature. but without the help of a teacher you'll never know it. only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help. - Bodhidharma
When things are no longer important, only consciousness becomes important. When things are no longer significant, a new search, a new door opens. Then you are not rushing towards the without: you start slipping into the within. The kingdom of God is within. And once you drop identifying with things, suddenly you are no longer fighting -- there is no point. You start moving with the river of existence. Arrival at home is effortless. - Osho
Among the greatest treasures
To be found on earth,
Being of nothingness
Is the greatest.

Zen Quotes Part 2