Zen quotes and proverbs full book (digital)

Quotes and Proverbs for awakening one’s true self

Compiled and edited by Ryan Ovsienko

“To cast off the delusive way of

ordinary consciousness while sitting on a cushion in a quiet room is only the beginning.”

Katsuki Sekida

Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy

“If you become peaceful, then

accept it, if you don’t become

peaceful, then accept that also.”

Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana

“I have always taught that things arise due to the conjunction of

causes and conditions not that they

arise without a cause.”

Red Pine

The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary

“Zen is above all a matter of personal experience. The student is asked to accept nothing the truth of which he cannot demonstrate for himself, with his own mind and body.”

Katsuki Sekida

Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy

“A Buddha is someone who finds

freedom in good fortune and bad.”

“One may practice zazen for twenty, thirty, even fifty years, and go through failures and frustrations, but every defeat and time of despair is in reality a gain rather than a loss.”

Katsuki Sekida

Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy

Bodhidharma

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

“To travel is to be alive, but to get

somewhere is to be dead, for as our own proverb says, “To travel well is better than to arrive.”

Alan W. Watts The Way of Zen

“If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything.”

“Usually when you practice zazen, you

become very idealistic, and you set up an ideal or goal which you strive to attain and fulfill. But as I have often said, this is absurd. When you are idealistic, you have some gaining idea within yourself; by the time you attain your ideal or goal, your gaining idea will create another ideal.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Seng-T’san

The Third Patriarch of Zen Hsin Hsin Ming

Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen

“A world which increasingly consists of destinations

“Not till your mind is motionless as

without journeys between them, a world which values only “getting somewhere” as fast as possible, becomes a world without substance.”

wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”

Alan W. Watts

Huang Po

The Way of Zen

The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Know your mind and see your nature.”

Red Pine

The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng

“The best way to let go is to notice

the thoughts as they come up and to acknowledge them.”

“Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. ” Dogen Zenji Shobogenzo

Charlotte Joko Beck

Everyday Zen: Love and Work

“Obey the nature of things (your own nature) and you will walk freely and undisturbed.”

Seng-T’san

The Third Patriarch of Zen Hsin Hsin Ming

“If you fall into poverty, live that way

without grumbling - then your poverty will not burden you. Likewise, if you are rich, live with your riches. All this is the functioning of Buddha-nature. In short, Buddha-nature has the quality of infinite adaptability. ”

“When you realize that whether something

exists or not is nothing but the perception of your own mind, its external existence is seen as nonexistent and non-arising.”

Red Pine

The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary

Philip Kapleau

The Three Pillars of Zen

“If you don’t understand how to practice

“The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you

archery in its true sense, then even though you practice very hard, what you acquire is just technique. Perhaps you can hit the mark without trying, but without a bow and arrow you cannot do anything. If you understand the point of practice, then even without a bow and arrow the archery will help you.”

can understand the mind, everything else is included. All a tree’s fruit and flowers, branches and leaves depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort.”

Bodhidharma

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Shunryu Suzuki

“Believing in everything means realizing that you and everything are never separate. ” Seung Sahn

The Compass of Zen

“Thoughts create the body, on this is what the mind is based, on this is what consciousness depends.”

Red Pine

The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary

Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen

“You must realize that no matter

how intently you count your breaths you will still perceive what is in your line of vision.”

Philip Kapleau

The Three Pillars of Zen

“The experience of the present

moment is quite simply what remains when no thought arises in our mind.”

Noah Elkrief

A Guide to the Present Moment

“Work . . . without wasting a moment.

If you do this and everything that you do whole-heartedly, this nourishes the seeds of Awakening.”

Dogen Zenji Shobogenzo

“Zen is magic. It gives you the key to open

the miraculous. And the miraculous is in you and the key is also in you.”

Osho

Zen: The Path of Paradox

Quotes and Proverbs

for awakening one’s true self

“Not thinking about anything is Zen.

Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.” Bodhidharma

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Zen is a way of being. It’s a school of Mayahana Buddhism.

The point of practice is to become aware of the present.

Zen brings you toward your original nature. While everyone is searching for truth outside themselves, Zen guides you to revealing the truth within yourself. Breathe naturally. Allow your senses to experience the vividness and fullness of the eternal now.

Embody the excerpts in this book to accompany your practice.