101 Powerful Zen Sayings and Proverbs - Buddhaimonia

101 Powerful Zen Sayings and Proverbs - Buddhaimonia
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by Matt Valentine - Get email updates of new posts here
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The world is its own magic.

Shunryu Suzuki
When I was first introduced to Zen, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I
was in the middle of a sort of path of self-discovery, lets call it, when Zen promptly hit
me upside the head.
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Two years before that, I started reading a book. This book largely became my life for
those two years, and I consequently ended up reading it ten times more than any other
book I had read in my entire life up until then. The book? Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
For those who dont know, Tao of Jeet Kune Do is the book Bruce Lee is most well known
for outside of his films. He wrote a lot, and after his passing at the young age of 32 his
family and students gradually released to the public various books and collections of his
notes, but none received the notoriety that the very first collection, Tao of Jeet Kune
Do, did.
Bruce Lee was nearly as much a philosopher and mystic as he was a martial artist.
And Bruce Lees philosophy on the martial arts was heavily influenced by Zen.
So much so that the first ten or fifteen pages of the Tao of Jeet Kune Do is dedicated
solely to his favorite snippets from various Zen texts. And its these very same pages that
would be my first introduction to Zen.
I had read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do earlier in my life and was completely lost by this first
section of the book, and likewise would be again when reading it years later. It might
have been my first somewhat introduction to Zen, but at the time I had no idea what the
heck I was reading. There was stuff like this:
Voidness is that which stands right in the middle between this

and that. The void is all-inclusive, having no opposite there
is nothing which it excludes or opposes. It is living void
because all forms come out of it and whoever realizes the void
is filled with life and power and the love of all human beings.
As much as I loved the martial arts, it was this first section of the book which I
considered most fascinating. I remember sitting down for long periods, contemplating
what the various snippets from this section meant.
While at the time I didnt know what most of it meant, those moments of contemplation
would later help me piece things together as I began to learn more about Zen.
You cant technically talk about Zen, or write about Zen, because true Zen cant be put
into words. Ultimately, I can only point the way.
Leading people down the path, helping them discover the truth for themselves is part of
what Buddhaimonia is about. I dont presume to be some magical guru that has special
abilities or whom you should follow because only I know the way.
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Youll find the way in whispers of truth which you experience in your own
everyday life. And as you follow that trail, youll find greater peace and joy throughout
each day.
Not a sense of relief though, thats shallow, Im talking about a sense of peace that
washes over every part of you and seems to bring everything into focus, even if at first
just for a moment.
The below list of Zen quotes and Zen proverbs are bits of universal wisdom and
insight which Ive gathered over the past few years, mostly from teachers whom I have an
immense amount of respect for. People such as:
Thich Nhat Hanh
Shunryu Suzuki
Alan Watts
Dogen Zenji
Eckhart Tolle
Byron Katie
Osho
D. T. Suzuki
Rumi
Buddha
Ive amassed these from years of reading books and articles (I love buddhismnow.com)
and listening to a lot of audio. Sometimes it feels like Im following an invisible trail, laid
out step by step from past mystics and spiritual figures. Its like one big game of
connecting the dots. And this is a trail that anyone can follow.
I narrowed this list down from some 250 original quotes to the essential, the ones which
held the most significance for me and which I felt would bring the most value to you. I
feel that even a single quote can have a profound effect. A quote can give us insight into
something new or confirm something which weve felt or experienced.
As with all of Zen, the below Zen quotes arent about beliefs or ideas, but universal
wisdom which you can discover in your own daily life. And Zen is just one way to these
universal truths, countless mystics and spiritual traditions have come to the very same
insights independently that perfectly echo what Zen has discovered. This is why youll
see quotes from people other than notable Zen figures, such as Rumi and Martin Luther
King Jr.
Zen is about pointing to the universal everyday wisdom all around you,
about getting you to experience things purely as they are, not about convincing you of
some specific way of thinking, or about stamping some specific label on something.
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Dont get caught up in thinking something is Zen or anything like that, these are simply
bits of wisdom pointing to universal truth. Treat them as such and let them guide you
towards a life of greater peace and joy.
______________________________________
If youre interested in learning how to

bring more authentic Zen spirit into your
life, then youll love my upcoming book
Living Zen.
If youd like to be notified when more
information is available, as well as get
some cool exclusive book bonuses from
here until release, fill in your name and
email below!
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2016
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I separated the quotes and proverbs below based on a number of major sections to help
you piece together their meaning. Keep in mind though that each section is really just a
shade of the same one thing, and so youll notice that many of these can be placed
under multiple categories.
Worry less about what category these fall into and more about receiving the message
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purely as intended and youll get the most from this list.
The PresentM om entandM indfulness
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.
Alan Watts
The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is

the step that you are taking at this moment. Thats all there
ever is.
Eckhart Tolle
Wherever you are, be there totally.

Eckhart Tolle
Im here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when
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you want to get away.

Pema Chdrn
When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is

without getting entangled in it.
Eckhart Tolle
If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment

with life. That is very serious!
Thich Nhat Hanh
Practice is this life, and realization is this life, and this life is
revealed right here and now.
Maezumi Roshi
If you want to change the world, start with the next person
who comes to you in need.
B. D. Schiers
My experience is that the teachers we need most are the

people were living with right now.
Byron Katie
Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness & all forms of

nonforgiveness are caused by too much past & not enough
presence.
Eckhart Tolle
Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long

enough to take another breath.
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Huang Po
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

Eckhart Tolle
When you do something, you should burn yourself up

completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand

nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being
sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and
unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.
Alan Watts
The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality is the

highest act of wisdom.
D.T. Suzuki
Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on

which the world earth revolves slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future.
Thich Nhat Hanh
And when they played they really played. And when they
worked they really worked.
Dr. Seuss
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Interbeing
Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It is

about everything!
Shunryu Suzuki
Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence

and are nothing in themselves
Nagarjuna
Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to

everything else.
Buddha
Heaven and earth and I are of the same root,

The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance.
Seng-chao
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are

all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly,
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affects all indirectly.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

Thch Nhat Hanh
Heaven & earth & I are of the same root. Ten thousand things
& I are of one substance.
Sng-chao
Im perm anence
One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.

Dogen
True Selfand N o-Self
The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting

with something.
Koun Yamada
I dont let go of concepts I meet them with understanding.

Then they let go of me.
Byron Katie
The Zen expression Kill the Buddha! means to kill any

concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.
Peter Matthiessen
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When you hear that all beings are Buddha, dont fall into the
error of thinking theres more than one Buddha.
Zen Graffiti
The self divides into ten billion distinct illuminating spirits.

Distinguish these without falling into names and
classifications.
Hongzhi
To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to

forget the self. To forget the self is to be awakened by all
things.
Dogen
Melting our attachment to self is the most powerful

medication for bringing mental and emotional imbalances in
check.
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
Have good trust in yourself not in the One that you think
you should be, but in the One that you are.
Maezumi Roshi
D irectExperience
My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the

moon. You dont have to become my finger, nor do you have to
worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at
where it is pointing.
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Osho
To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a

painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.
Suzuki Roshi
Zen has no business with ideas.

D.T. Suzuki
What is important is not the right doctrine but the attainment

of the true experience. It is giving up believing in belief.
Alan Keightley
The menu is not the meal.

Alan Watts
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Alan Watts
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A w akening and Everyday Life
People sleep, and when they die they wake.

Muhammad
Today, you can decide to walk in freedom. You can choose to

walk differently. You can walk as a free person, enjoying every
step.
Thich Nhat Hanh
When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage;

when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man.
Zen Proverb
If we dont occupy ourself with everything, then peaceful mind

will have nowhere to abide.
Shen-hui
Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free:
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the
ultimate.
Chuang
The Buddha talked about saving all beings from delusion, not
converting them to a new religion.
Buddhism Now
Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the
infinite. Let all things take their course.
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Chuang Tzu
Let go over a cliff, die completely, and then come back to life
after that you cannot be deceived.
Zen Proverb
The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths

beyond itself.
Anais Nin
Each step along the Buddhas path to happiness requires

practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.
Henepola Gunaratana
Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True

power is within & available to you now.
Eckhart Tolle
Body and mind dropped off.

Dogen describing enlightenment
Its not about approving or liking, but just being able to allow
the world to be the way it is without resenting, hating, or
judging it.
Buddhism Now
Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be
extremely hard and strong.
Zen Proverb
It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can
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wake up right this moment.

Osho
To understand everything is to forgive everything

Gautama Siddhartha
Any enlightenment which requires to be authenticated,

certified, recognized, congratulated, is false, or at least
incomplete.
R.H. Blyth
Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is

what you already are.
Ramesh Balsekar
When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

Byron Katie
The way out of life & death is not some special technique;
essential thing is to penetrate to the root of life & death.
Bukko
The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a

benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.
Jack Kornfield
People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a

miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on
water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are
engaged in a miracle which we dont even recognize: a blue
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sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a

child our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
Thch Nhat Hanh
Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this,

walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.
Bodhidharma
To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk
with the master, see through the master, become the master.
Zen Proverb
Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold & dung. Before you

learn it, its like gold; after you learn it, its like dung.
Zen Proverb
Reality and the True N ature ofThings
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You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the

same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is
doing.
Alan Watts
At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the
infinite in all things.
Chuang Tzu
In the scenery of spring, nothing is better, nothing worse; the

flowering branches are; some long, some short.
Eicho
There is no mistake in nature.

Byron Katie
Still water has no mind to receive the image of the migrating

geese.
Zen Proverb
All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy
and inner peace arise from beyond the mind.
Eckhart Tolle
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

Zen Proverb
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a

field. Ill meet you there.
Rumi
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Why is the tao so valuable? Because it is everywhere, and

everyone can use it. This is why those who seek will find.
Lao Tzu
Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.

Seng-tsan
Any experience of reality is indescribable!

R. D. Laing
No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no

intention; let it settle itself.
Tilopa
Youre never given more pain than you can handle. You
never, ever get more than you can take.
Byron Katie
As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color

& fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the
world.
Buddha
Zazen is an activity that is an extension of the universe. Zazen

is not the life of an individual, its the universe thats
breathing.
Dogen
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one
dewdrop on the grass.
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Dogen
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at

and exploring itself.
Alan Watts
Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night,
we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor
between well and badly arranged constellations.
Alan Watts
Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through

our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the
witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its
glory, of its magnificence.
Alan Watts
Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.

Lao Tzu
Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never

wake up now try to imagine what it was like to wake up
having never gone to sleep.
Alan Watts
Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my

tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that
this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity
itself transcending time and space?
D.T. Suzuki
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The W ay and N on-Striving
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of

unhappiness.
Eric Hoffer
The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of

suffering.
Ram Dass
For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to

abandon our views about them.
Thch Nhat Hanh
If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where
else do you expect to find it?
Dogen
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.
Alan Watts
Life isnt as serious as the mind makes it out to be.

Eckhart Tolle
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods

made for fun.
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Alan Watts
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

Alan Watts
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.

Atisha
When I feel like dancing, I dance. I dont care if anyone else is

dancing or if everyone else is laughing at me. I dance.
Rachel Danson
A follower of the way has neither form nor shape, neither root
nor trunk; nor dwelling place; like a fish leaping in the water.
Rinzai Zen proverb
I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that you dont know
already. All I can do is remind you of what you have
forgotten.
Eckhart Tolle
Every being is in search of truth, but small fears go on

preventing you.
Osho
All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a

place of no-mind, from inner stillness.
Eckhart Tolle
I have lived with several Zen masters all of them cats.
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Eckhart Tolle
______________________________________
If youre interested in learning how to

bring more authentic Zen spirit into your
life, then youll love my upcoming book
Living Zen.
If youd like to be notified when more
information is available, as well as get
some cool exclusive book bonuses from
here until release, fill in your name and
email below!
Living Zen-Com ing Soon

2016
Be notified when new
First Name
Email Address
information for my upcoming

book Living Zen becomes
available. Plus, get
exclusive previews before
anyone else. Thank you for
your support!
Send Me Updates
No spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
Powered by ConvertKit
______________________________________
D id Im iss any ofyourfavorite Zen-them ed quotes orproverbs?Letm e

know in the com m ents below .
If so, join over 10,000 people who receive weekly insights, inspiration, and wisdom for a more
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Brent says
February 2, 2015 at 4:43 AM
Great
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Reply
Matt Valentine says

Thanks Brent!
Reply
Frank Bonavita says

February 5, 2015 at 3:57 PM
Matt I am glad that I bumped into your site..very glad.
Reply
Matt Valentine says

Thanks Frank, Im glad that youre glad.
Reply
Swier Miedema says

March 10, 2015 at 6:23 AM
What a lovely site! Just what I need right now! Maybe youll like one of my sayings:
If you can see this, you exist. If you exist, you matter. No people exist that do not matter.
Reply
Matt Valentine says

March 10, 2015 at 6:41 AM
Thank you Swier! I love it, a very reassuring saying especially for anyone questioning their worth.
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Reply
Paul says
May 9, 2015 at 2:57 AM
I heard this one which I really like: To be calm is the highest achievement of self.
Reply
Matt Valentine says

May 9, 2015 at 7:10 AM
I like it! Calmness in many difficult situations shows a high level of skill, its not easy to get to that
point.
Reply
Syreeta says
July 11, 2015 at 4:27 AM
Someone shared this one with me,
Let go, or be dragged.
Reply
Matt Valentine says

July 11, 2015 at 5:46 AM
Lol! Perfectjust perfect. Thanks for that Syreeta.
Reply
Carlota says
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July 21, 2015 at 9:00 AM

Thank you so much for bringing all this wisdom together for us!! I think my favourite is this one: A disciple
asks: Master, you say the whole universe is a transparent glass. How should I understand this? And the
master answers: The whole universe is a transparent glass. Why do you want to understand it?
Reply
Matt Valentine says

July 23, 2015 at 9:09 AM
I love that, first time hearing it! Thanks for that Carlota.
Reply
Tony says
August 28, 2015 at 8:59 PM
By saying nothing I have said it all.
Reply
Matt Valentine says

August 29, 2015 at 2:57 AM
True Zen. Thanks for that Tony.
Reply
Mansour Benn says

October 1, 2015 at 7:17 AM
thank you for gathering all this quote.
do you happen to know a quote about been natural, where by its easy for a plant or an animal to be natural
but difficult a human.i tried to find it but no success.
thank you.
M.Benn
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Reply
Matt Valentine says

Hey Mansour,
It doesnt ring a bell unfortunately. Ill do a little looking around though and see if I can find anything
like that.
Reply
Tony says
Today I am here, tomorrow I am gone.
Keep me in your thoughts and I will always be
Reply
fazalurahman says
October 17, 2015 at 9:31 PM
excellent site man ,thanksss
Reply
Matt Valentine says

October 18, 2015 at 1:29 PM
Thanks Fazal, glad you like it.
Reply
Suranjan Banerjee says

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Really astounding piece of collection. Awaiting for the release of the book
Reply
Matt Valentine says

Thank you, Suranjan.
Reply
Rob Shave says

April 6, 2016 at 11:38 AM
Sometimes, for a moment, when I stop what Im doing and look at where I am and who I am with, I know
there is nothing I would rather be doing, nowhere Id rather be, and no one I would rather be with. Since
discovering this meaning of happiness, my life has been well, happier
Reply
Matt Valentine says

April 6, 2016 at 12:30 PM
Thats a great insight Rob.
Reply
Aphoristically says
April 25, 2016 at 1:31 PM
Each passing second is an infinite possibility.
Happiness blossoms upon sharing.
Reply
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What was the book that influenced the author's introduction to Zen?

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101 Powerful Zen Sayings and Proverbs - Buddhaimonia

by Matt Valentine - Get email updates of new posts here

The world is its own magic.