187 Quotes About Zen-buddhism

At the moment of giving birth to a child, is the mother separate from the child? You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Shohaku Okumura ~ We cannot expect any ecstasy greater than right here, right now—our everyday lives.

Here might not be a place of great activity or planning, but it is possibly a place of rest, or of seeing things a different way, or of something yet undiscovered. Even now, turning toward here, I feel the struggle lessen and some deep clenching subtly ease.

So we have to find the realm of buddhas within the realm of demons. In other words, in the realm of pain and suffering, we have to find the realm of peace and harmony. This is religious practice.

There is no clump called “I” moving from this spot to that spot, instant by instant. Rather, through particular encounters with particular people, within each encounter, within each transition, something called “I” makes its appearance. Thus it is that what seems to be an object outside yourself is, in reality, your complement, that which gives this instant of your life its glow.

Beyond anything we know to name, there moves a force arising from the pure juxtaposition of things, a force that draws us into being, that allows us to dwell fully in our lives. All pure juxtaposition is a gathering.

Life gives you exactly what you need to awaken.

You will bring yourself the suffering you need to bring yourself so that you may awaken.

SHOHAKU OKUMURA ~ If we feel we’re becoming enlightened, that’s delusion.