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May you find great value in these Zen quotes and sayings.
The words of truth are always paradoxical.
- Lao Tzu
Related topics: Wisdom Favorite-Quotes
To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu
A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu
By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
- Lao Tzu
Children are natural Zen masters;
their world is brand new in each and every moment.
- John Bradshaw
Maybe So, Maybe Not.
- Ancient Taoist Proverb
Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Dwell in stillness.
Observe without reacting and without judging.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
- Lao Tzu
All the suffering, stress, and addiction
comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Abandon hope.
- Pema Chodron
Be - don't try to become.
Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.
- Osho
To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake
is to be continually thrown out of the nest.
- Pema Chodron
This moment! - this here-now - is forgotten
when you start thinking in terms of achieving something.
When the achieving mind arises,
you lose contact with the paradise you are in.
- Osho
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu
I do not know whether I was then
a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now
a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
- Zhuangzi
"Beginner Mind" is a Zen Buddhist term
that describes moving past our assumptions
of the nature of our life,
and really SEEING our surroundings -
especially the people we interact with -
with new eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The wise man looks into space,
and does not regard the small as too little,
nor the great as too much;
for he knows that there is no limit to dimensions.
- Lao Tzu
Can you let go of words and ideas,
attitudes and expectations?
If so, then the Tao will loom into view.
- Lao Tzu
Any change that comes about in your life
will be primarily because of your own efforts.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Stay at the center
and let all things take their course.
- Lao Tzu
Walking is Zen, sitting is Zen.
Then what will be the quality?
Watchfully alert, joyously unmotivated,
centered, loving, flowing, one walks.
And the walking is sauntering.
Loving, alert, watchful, one sits, unmotivated -
not sitting for anything in particular,
just enjoying how beautiful
just sitting doing nothing is,
how relaxing, how restful.
- Osho
We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Breathe and let be.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity,
reduce selfishness, have few desires.
- Lao Tzu
Overflowing Cup of Tea:
The Zen Master poured his visitor's teacup full, and then kept pouring.
The visitor watched until he could no longer restrain himself.
"It is overfull. No more will go in!"
"Like this cup," the Zen Master said,
"you are full of your own opinions and assumptions.
How can you learn truth until you first empty your cup?"
- Traditional Zen Koan
The whole world is a cyclone.
But once you have found the center, the cyclone disappears.
This nothingness is the ultimate peak of consciousness.
- Osho
To manage your mind,
know that there is nothing,
and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness.
- Lao Tzu
Don't choose. Accept life as it is in its totality.
- Osho
Be an Observer of Life.
See the events, feel the emotions,
and recognize the difference.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
- Lin Yutang
The man who is awakened, lives in such a way
that he leaves no footprints.
- Osho quoting The Buddha
If you are absolutely without mind,
just pure consciousness,
time stops completely,
disappears,
leaving no trace behind.
- Osho
The Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
- Lao Tzu
The moment you start seeing life
as non-serious, a playfulness,
all the burden on your heart disappears.
All the fear of death, of life,
of love - everything disappears.
- Osho
Yielding is the way of the Tao.
- Lao Tzu
What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?
- Traditional Zen Koan
The mind constantly chatters.
That chatter winds up being the force
that drives us much of the day in terms of what we do,
what we react to, and how we feel.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Meditation is neither shutting things out nor off.
It is seeing things clearly,
and deliberately positioning yourself differently in relationship to them.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Those who have knowledge, don't predict.
Those who predict, don't have knowledge.
- Lao Tzu
The wise man looks back into the past,
and does not grieve over what is far off,
nor rejoice over what is near;
for he knows that time is without end.
- Lao Tzu
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Patience is a form of wisdom.
It demonstrates that we understand and accept
the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom
because you know you are not the mind and you are not the body.
- Osho
Dare to be naive.
- Buckminster Fuller
There is just this moment.
We are not trying to improve or to get anywhere else.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
If you really aren't trying to get anywhere else in this moment,
patience takes care of itself.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
Be still and know who you are.
- Kirtana
Mindfulness means being awake.
It means being aware of what you are doing.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
He who obtains has little.
He who scatters has much.
- Lao Tzu
Being wakeful in each and every moment of your life is meditation.
The simplest definition of meditation is:
when seeing, just see; when hearing, just hear.
- Josh Baran
Maybe life isn't really as complicated
as we make it out to be.
Perhaps a simple child-like attitude would create
a less stressful and happier life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Great acts are made up of small deeds.
- Lao Tzu
The water in a vessel is sparkling;
the water in the sea is dark.
The small truth has words which are clear;
the great truth has great silence.
- Rabindranath Tagore
Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all.
What is happening? What do you feel?
What do you see? What do you hear?
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
As your silence grows; your friendliness, your love grows;
your life becomes a moment-to-moment dance, a joy, a celebration.
- Osho
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
- Henry David Thoreau
The True Path is the path on which
there is no coming and no going.
- Traditional Zen Koan
The Tao of the sage is work without effort.
Practice non-action. Work without doing.
- Lao Tzu
In meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere
is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
When I find that I can't accept what is happening,
I turn my attention to accepting my non-acceptance.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra
He who knows that enough is enough
will always have enough.
- Lao Tzu
Look at other people and ask yourself
if you are really seeing them or just your thoughts about them.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
The things of this world exist;
they are; you can't refuse them.
- Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching - Book One #2 - version by Ursula K. Le Guin
Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is,
and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
One cannot have a mind that is empty of all thoughts,
but one can have a mind that is content with
whatever thoughts fill it at the moment.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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