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Zen Sayings
Zen Quotes and Sayings

Thank you for visiting these Zen Sayings and Quotes. I hope you find value in these Zen Quotes and Sayings from my large collection of Inspirational Sayings.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.
- Lao Tzu

Related topics: Wisdom Live-By

A good traveler has no fixed plans,
and is not intent on arriving.
- Lao Tzu PHOTO

To the mind that is still,
the whole universe surrenders.
- Lao Tzu PHOTO

Fully experience THIS moment -
breathe in, breathe out - nothing more.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie PHOTO

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Thank you, Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.
- Lao-Tzu

Great acts are made up of small deeds.
- Lao Tzu

Be - don't try to become.
Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.
- Osho

 

Dare to be naive.
- Buckminster Fuller

Be still and know who you are.
- Kirtana

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

He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

Maybe So, Maybe Not.
- Ancient Taoist Proverb

Yielding is the way of the Tao.
- Lao Tzu

No more walls.
- Anais Nin

Breathe and let be.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
- Lao Tzu

The Tao of the sage is work without effort.
Practice non-action. Work without doing.
- Lao Tzu

Breath by breath, let go of fear, expectation, anger,
regret, cravings, frustration, fatigue.
Let go of the need for approval.
- Lama Surya Das

Abandon hope.
- Pema Chodron

To be a beneficial presence in the world,
cultivate a conscious awareness of your unity with Spirit.
Expect good in your own life.
Desire good for all others as well.
See and affirm abundant blessings of peace,
health, and plenty for everyone.
Align your thoughts with peace and happiness,
and realize that these qualities are your true nature.
- Kathy Juline

"It's not that important,
don't worry about it" is the answer,
now what was the question?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Zen says that if you drop knowledge -
and within knowledge everything is included;
your name, your identity, everything,
because this has been given to you by others -
if you drop all that has been given by others,
you will have a totally different quality to your being: innocence.
This will be a crucifixion of the persona, the personality,
and there will be a resurrection of your innocence.
You will become a child again, reborn.
- Osho

As we cultivate peace and happiness in ourselves,
we also nourish peace and happiness in those we love.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity,
reduce selfishness, have few desires.
- Lao Tzu

NECESSITY and URGENCY are twin poisons of our rattlesnake minds.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

He who knows, does not speak.
He who speaks, does not know.
- Lao Tzu

Be content with what you have,
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.
- Lao Tzu

Those who have knowledge, don't predict.
Those who predict, don't have knowledge.
- Lao Tzu

He who knows that enough is enough
will always have enough.
- Lao Tzu

Don't choose. Accept life as it is in its totality.
- Osho

Today, I am Sending My Monkey Mind to the Zoo.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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

Mindfulness means being awake.
It means being aware of what you are doing.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?
- Traditional Zen Koan

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

"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 Moon Cannot Be Stolen:
A thief entered the little hut of a Zen Master,
but discovered there was nothing to steal.
The Zen Master discovered the thief.
"You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler,
"and you should not return empty-handed.
Please take my clothes as a gift."
The thief was bewildered,
but he took the clothes and slunk away.
The Zen Master sat naked, watching the moon.
"Poor fellow," he mused,
"I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."
- Traditional Zen Koan

He who obtains has little.
He who scatters has much.
- 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

Dwell in stillness.
Observe without reacting and without judging.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Simply put, mindfulness is moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
- 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

When you are eating, eat totally -
chew totally, taste totally, smell totally.
Touch your bread, feel the texture.
Smell the bread, smell the flavor.
Chew it, let it dissolve into your being,
and remain conscious - and you are meditating.
And then meditation is not separate from life.
- Osho

Children are natural Zen masters;
their world is brand new in each and every moment.
- John Bradshaw

Stay at the center
and let all things take their course.
- Lao Tzu

The soul loves to meditate,
for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy.
If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation,
remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego;
it doesn't belong to the soul.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

There is just this moment.
We are not trying to improve or to get anywhere else.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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

The True Path is the path on which
there is no coming and no going.
- Traditional Zen Koan

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

Time to Die:
A Zen teacher had a rare and priceless teacup.
One day, his precocious student accidentally broke the cup.
Hearing the footsteps of his teacher,
the student held the pieces of the cup behind his back.
When the master appeared, he asked: "Why do people have to die?"
"This is natural," explained the teacher.
"Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
The student showed the shattered cup, saying,
"It was time for your cup to die."
- Traditional Zen Koan

I confess that there is nothing to teach:
no religion, no science, no writings
which will lead your mind back to Spirit.
Today I speak this way, tomorrow that,
but always the Path is beyond words and beyond mind.
- Lao Tzu
(paraphrase)

Wherever you go, there you are.
- Traditional Zen Proverb

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
- Lao Tzu

Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

In the midst of movement and chaos,
keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

To manage your mind,
know that there is nothing,
and then relinquish all attachment to nothingness.
- 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

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

Mind is repetitive, mind always moves in circles.
Mind is a mechanism: you feed it with knowledge,
it repeats the same knowledge,
it goes on chewing the same knowledge again and again.
No-mind is clarity, purity, innocence.
No-mind is the real way to live,
the real way to know, the real way to be.
- Osho

If you really aren't trying to get anywhere else in this moment,
patience takes care of itself.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

The mind exists in time, in fact the mind is time;
it exists in the past and the future.
And remember, time consists of only two tenses,
the past and the future.
The present is not part of time,
the present is part of eternity.
- Osho

As your silence grows; your friendliness, your love grows;
your life becomes a moment-to-moment dance, a joy, a celebration.
- Osho

All the suffering, stress, and addiction
comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn


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