28 Quotes by Charlotte Joko Beck

We all have to practice, and we have to practice with all of our might for the rest of our lives.

Living Zen is nothing special: life as it is. Zen is life itself, nothing added.

Human beings are basically good, kind, and compassionate, but it takes hard digging to uncover that buried jewel.

Joy is being the circumstances of our life just as they are.

That’s essentially what Zen practice is about: functioning from moment to moment.

At any given moment, we are the way we are, and we see what we’re able to see.

But if other people are irritable, we may divorce their behavior from their experiencing. We can’t feel their experience; and so we judge their behavior. If we think, “She shouldn’t be so arrogant,” we only see her behavior and judge it, because we have no awareness of what is true for her.

The minute we have even a passing thought of judging another person, the red light of practice should go on.

Shakespeare’s Polonius said, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.