We will be entering the beautiful world of a Zen master’s no-mind. Sosan is the third Zen Patriarch. Nothing much is known about him- this is as it should be, because history records only violence....

What you know can never be the beyond. Whatever you experience is not the beyond. If there is any beyond, this movement of ‘you’ is absent. The absence of this movement probably is the beyond,...

What is personal death?Asking this question and pausing to look inward – isn’t personal death a concept? Isn’t there a thought-and-picture series going on in the brain? These scenes of personal ending take place solely...

Sharpen your sword daily , and let it serve your true master: YOU. You and the Master are one

The thinking brain influences the body’s responses and it makes a neat little loop.

He knows not where he’s going,For the ocean will decide,Its not the destination,It’s the glory of the ride

You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past and leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely.

The Buddha is found in other people – even the ones we do not like very much.

Shigemori’s body of work is a compelling manifesto for continuous cultural renewal.

Every hour of your life that ticks by, there are numerous points and moments when you can choose to pause – and be aware of your mental and physical state. At any given point, you...

I grow into these mountains like a moss. I am bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth and heaven in the silence, the requiem birds, the mythic beasts, the...

What makes human life–which is inseparable from this moment–so precious is its fleeting nature. And not that it doesn’t last but that it never returns again.

There were so many beliefs which we had about the world, which then influenced everything, everything, about how we saw the world and interacted in the world and were with others. Everything. It was profound...

You know you have arrived when you have stopped caring about the destination

The brush must draw by itself. This cannot happen if one does not practice constantly. But neither can it happen if one makes an effort.

If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

Consider your own place in the universal oneness of which we are all a part, from which we all arise, and to which we all return.

Like wind– In it, with it, of it. Of it just like a sail, so light and strong that, even when it is bent flat, it gathers all the power of the wind without hampering...

The effects you will have on your students are infinite and currently unknown; you will possibly shape the way they proceed in their careers, the way they will vote, the way they will behave as...

Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain.

The truth is love doesn’t cost a dime and it can move mountains… but hate destroys everything it comes in contact with.

Do not seek for the truth, only stop having an opinion.

There is nowhere to arrive except the present moment.

Oh, I am sorry, I do not feel well.

The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither colour...

A boddhisattva is someone who is on the way to becoming a buddha. All of us become boddhisattvas as soon as we start to take our Zen work seriously and the work we do contributes...

Almost everything that I’ve ever worried about has never happened ..

Search not for happiness outside yourself, for nothing could be further from the truth.

Canning is a whole world of a thing to do. It requires that you get out of your head. It’s a Zen thing. You cannot be wondering about your inadequacies and how they drove Bob...

The present is always the best, even when its rough.

When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,...

We are all part of a universal game. Returning to our essence while living in the world is the object of the game. The earth is the game board, and we are the pieces on...

You will bring yourself the suffering you need to bring yourself so that you may awaken.

Amazing how the most obvious things escape your notice. Maybe the truth is exactly the things you don’t notice. Maybe the aim to see and tell the truth is inherently futile, a contradiction in terms,...

Pardon all runners,All speechless, alien winds,All mad waters.Pardon their impulses,Their wild attitudes,Their young flights, their reticence.When a message has no clothes onHow can it be spoken.

Silence is the language of Om. We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.

Don’t think of what you have to do, don’t consider how to carry it out!” he exclaimed. “The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprose.

The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand ; I take a book from the other side of the desk...

The glass is neither half empty, nor half full. The glass is just a glass and it’s content can perpetually change with your perception.

In a Zen retreat we have a format for working with these quicksilver changes: we sit with them, we pay attention to them… Being steady with mindfulness as an anchor for all the changes we...

I sit in meditation…and soon all sounds, and all one sees and feels, take on imminence, an immanence, as if the Universe were coming to attention, a Universe of which one is the center, a...

This will never come again

I have the certainty, now, of not needing certainty. I have the certainty, of uncertainty. The peace, with being uncertain. All is good. All is holy. Whatever you choose, it can be fine. Hatred never...

Does one really have to fretAbout enlightenment?No matter what road I travel,I’m going home.

Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are...

To escape from the world means that one’s mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world.

Learning how to think’ really means learning how to exercise some control over how & what you think. It means being conscious & aware enough to choose what you pay attention to & to choose...

Humility before the flower at the timber line is the gate which gives access to the path up the open fell.

When you catch yourself slipping into a pool of negativity, notice how it derives from nothing other than resistance to the current situation.