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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
The True Path is the path on which
there is no coming and no going.
- Traditional Zen Koan
What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?
- Traditional Zen Koan
The Sweetest Strawberry:
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger.
He fled, the tiger after him.
Coming to a precipice,
he caught hold of the root of a wild vine
and swung himself over the edge.
The tiger sniffed at him from above.
Trembling, the man looked down to where,
far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him.
Only the vine sustained him.
Two mice, one white and one black,
little by little started to gnaw away the vine.
The man then saw a luscious strawberry near him.
Grasping the vine with one hand,
he plucked the strawberry with the other.
How sweet it tasted.
- Zen Koan
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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
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
I am not the same having seen the moon shine
on the other side of the world.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
When I admire the wonders of a sunset
or the beauty of the moon,
my soul expands in the worship of the creator.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
We return thanks to our mother,
the earth, which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams
which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines
for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the corn, and to her sisters,
the beans and squashes, which give us life.
We return thanks to the bushes and trees,
which provide us with fruit.
We return thanks to the wind,
which, moving the air, has banished diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and the stars,
which have given us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to our grandfather He-no,
that he has protected his grandchildren from witches and reptiles,
and has given us his rain.
We return thanks to the sun,
that he has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,
in whom is embodied all goodness,
and who directs all things for the good of his children.
- Iroquois traditional
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side
which he never shows to anybody.
- Mark Twain
We need to find God, and he cannot
be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence.
See how nature - trees, flowers, grass-
grows in silence; see the stars,
the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
- Mother Teresa
Three things cannot be long hidden:
the sun, the moon, and the truth.
- The Buddha
Shoot for the moon.
Even if you miss,
you'll land among the stars.
- Les Brown
Yeah we all shine on, like the moon,
and the stars, and the sun.
- John Lennon
The youth gets together his materials
to build a bridge to the moon,
or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth,
and, at length, the middle-aged man
concludes to build a woodshed with them.
- Henry David Thoreau
Procrastination is the thief of time.
- Edward Young
Hunger makes a thief of any man.
- Pearl S. Buck
Our "Rainbows and Butterflies" are the small miracles of our life -
the little things that are so easy to overlook,
yet so awe inspiring when we take a moment
to notice and to pay attention.
Give thanks for the rainbows, for the butterflies,
for all God's creatures - large and small,
for the bright blue sky and the soft fog and the gentle rain,
for the tree veiled in the season's first frost,
for the baby's laugh,
for the touch of a hand and the whispered "I love you."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen
And just dance a little.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
- Winston Churchill
You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
- Epictetus
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love is an act of faith,
and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
- Erich Fromm
Mother is the name for God
in the lips and hearts of little children.
- William Makepeace Thackeray
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
- Plato
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.
What if they are a little coarse,
and you may get your coat soiled or torn?
What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled
in the dirt once or twice.
Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
If i had known... i would have lingered
over my coffee a little longer.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama
Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.
- Helen Keller
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
- Jimmy Johnson
I never accepted the idea
that I had to be guided by
some pattern or blueprint.
- Little Richard
He who can give thanks for little
will always find he has enough.
- Anonymous
Great oaks from little acorns grow.
- Proverb
Two little words that can make the difference: START NOW.
- Mary C. Crowley
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink,
but they whose heart is firm,
and whose conscience approves their conduct,
will pursue their principles unto death.
- Thomas Paine
I get by with a little help from my friends.
- John Lennon
Little strokes,
Fell great oaks.
- Benjamin Franklin
I will dance a little.
I will move with the wind.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across
the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
- Crowfoot (Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890)
I have always held firmly to the thought
that each one of us can do a little
to bring some portion of misery to an end.
- Albert Schweitzer
It is of the small joys and little pleasures
that the greatest of our days are built.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Grace isn't just a little prayer
you say before receiving a meal.
It's a way to live.
- Jackie Windspear
Little minds have little worries,
big minds have no time for worries.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
We never repent of having eaten too little.
- Thomas Jefferson
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
who is sending a love letter to the world.
- Mother Teresa
For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something,
some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we?
If this is a chance to find out
even just a little part of that answer...
I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?
- the Jodie Foster movie Contact (1997)
Most people consider the course of events as natural and inevitable.
They little know what radical change are possible through prayer.
Every morning I offer my body, my mind and any ability that I posses,
to be used by Thee, O infinite creator,
in whatever way Thou dost choose to express Thyself through me.
I know that all work is Thy work, and that no task is too difficult
or too menial when offered to Thee in loving service.
- Paramahansa Yogananda
Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things,
and then proceed to greater.
- Epictetus
Unlike grown-ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He who knows best knows how little he knows.
- Thomas Jefferson
Rainbows and butterflies are themselves beautiful and highly symbolic,
but they are also representative of
all the small miracles of our life -
the little things that are so easy to overlook,
yet so awe inspiring when we take a moment
to notice and to pay attention.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Magic is natural to Wizards,
and only a little harder for the rest of us.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
A little neglect may breed great mischief.
- Benjamin Franklin
I will dance a little.
I will move with the wind.
I will give my body to my love and celebrate
that we have substance beyond the idea of ourselves.
We can move. We can touch. This is my physical exclamation point.
This is how I can awaken my mind to the possibilities in the day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
You should never be content with so little,
when you can reach out for something big.
- Charles L. Allen
(This quote is about making a big difference
in the world - not about greed)
We shall see but a little way if
we require to understand what we see.
- Henry David Thoreau
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
- Epicurus
Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.
Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower
or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets,
but I have found that when I silently commune with people
they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.
- George Washington Carver
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back
and realize they were the big things.
- Robert Brault
A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.
- A. A. Milne (Winnie-The-Pooh)
Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day, a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
A great man is always willing to be little.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
They who can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin
He who obtains has little.
He who scatters has much.
- Lao Tzu
When was the last time you took
a different route to work ... just because?
Consider shaking up your life a little (or a lot) ...
for no reason, except to do it.
Let your life be an adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Clothes make the man.
Naked people have little or no influence on society.
- Mark Twain
Life is lived in the mists -
little is fully visible, less is certain.
Yet rejoice in the unknowing,
and let all of life be a wonderful adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates
Thank you for visiting: The Moon Cannot Be Stolen: by Zen Koan.
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Thank you, Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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