Zen Master Quotes - Page 3

• Deluded beings think that if they get in a battle with a Zen Master or with a Don Juan, that it's going enhance their life if they win. You can never take power from someone else any more than you can take sunlight.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Winning, Thinking

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• One Zen master said, The whole universe is my true personality. This is a very wonderful saying... If you want to see what you truly are, open the window, and everything you see is in fact the expression of your inner reality. Can you embrace all of it?

  Adyashanti

  Reality, Expression, Personality

  Adyashanti (2011). “Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering”, p.220, Sounds True

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• Hidden in all good fortune is misfortune. And in all misfortune is good fortune. It's never going to stay the same as long you are in the world or unless you die while you are alive and become an enlightened Zen Master. But those people don't exist. When you study their lives, you find that they had the same struggles as the rest of us. It's not so much about being able to always have calm. Calmness isn't just the absence of noise or troubles. It's being able to find calm within yourself when other stuff is going on.

  Wayne Dyer

  Struggle, Long, People

  Source: www.drwaynedyer.com

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• I seemed to recall some words from an old Zen master, something like, "My Zen cuts down mountains." My rejection of Buddhism was a cutting down of mountains; that is precisely how it felt to me.

  Quentin S. Crisp

  Buddhism, Cutting, Rejection

  Source: www.teemingbrain.com

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• When I go visit my brother monks in Japan and sit down with other Zen Masters, they look at my crazy clothes and my strange expression, but they feel the power that emanates from my dedication to the practice. So they are comfortable with me, yet they're very uncomfortable.

  Frederick Lenz

  Brother, Crazy, Buddhism

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• Korea's first Zen Master-poet wrote simple yet elegant poetry of the world he inhabited, both physically and spiritually, and of daily insights-a pause along the way for a deep clear breath, a moon-viewing moment, a seasonal note or a farewell poem to a departing monk. His poems speak softly and clearly, like hearing a temple bell that was struck a thousand years ago.

  Sam Hamill

  Farewell, Moon, Simple

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• Others have falsely claimed to be the inspiration for Tom Booker in The Horse Whisperer. The one who truly inspired me was Buck Brannaman. His skill, understanding and his gentle, loving heart have parted the clouds for countless troubled creatures. Buck is the Zen master of the horse world.

  Nicholas Evans

  Horse, Inspiration, Heart

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• This building we're in has doors and windows. If we close the doors and windows, we can't get out. People lock themselves inside a house of delusions. But they're only delusions. They can leave anytime. Actually there is no house to leave. There's not even any leaving. What we see are flowers in the sky, the moon in the water. As for the meditative powers of Zen masters like Hsu-yun, sometimes it's useful to meditate and sometimes it isn't.

  Bill Porter

  Flower, Moon, Doors

  Bill Porter (2009). “Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China”, p.328, Counterpoint Press

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• We have been teaching together [with Kaz] now for more than twenty years in sesshins, in international travel programs in Japan and China, as well as intensives on Buddhism that focus on the work of Zen Master Dogen and Ryokan, as well as on many of the Mahayana sutras.

  Joan Halifax

  Teaching, Buddhism, Japan

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• What is Tantric Zen? Well, I don't think I can give you a straight answer, since I don't happen to be a very straight Zen master.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Thinking, Giving

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• In the advanced practice, the relationship between the Zen master and the student becomes very terse. The Zen master will expect things of the student because the student is in graduate school.

  Frederick Lenz

  School, Practice, Students

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• Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success.

  Frederick Lenz

  Philosophy, Buddhism, Rama

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• The way of Zen is to become independent and strong. Don't rely on others for perceptions of life and truth. Do it individually. Go to a teacher of Zen to learn how to do that, not to get answers for individual life situations.

  Frederick Lenz

  Teacher, Strong, Independent

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• The Zen master can see precisely what it will take to cause your awareness to become free. But the Zen master can't do it for you.

  Frederick Lenz

  Causes, Awareness, Masters

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• In Zen, and in other forms of self discovery, we do have a transference that occurs where psychically, information, blocks of attention, are transferred to the student.

  Frederick Lenz

  Block, Discovery, Self

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• The majority of the ten thousand states of mind cannot be discussed. It is rather a question of teaching a person to step outside the conceptual framework they have and transmitting blocks of awareness to an individual psychically.

  Frederick Lenz

  Block, Teaching, Mind

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• You're not listening to the Zen master, what he is saying outwardly, but even more importantly...what he is saying inwardly.

  Frederick Lenz

  Listening, Masters

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• We throw you as many as you want, in this profession, and the more you want the more we'll give you, until you're so confused that you'll just beg for us to stop. Stop what? You're the one who started it - you're doing it anyway.

  Frederick Lenz

  Confused, Giving, Want

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• The teaching of the ten thousand states of mind, particularly as one advances further, is done through transmission. This is where we differ from teaching algebra or calculus.

  Frederick Lenz

  Teaching, Mind, Done

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• In Old Zen, the Zen Master would do literally anything to break down the concept of what the study was. He would present conflicting codes all the time, just to shake this fixation people had on how to attain liberation.

  Frederick Lenz

  People, Study, Breaking Down

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• The Zen Master was constantly attempting to break up concepts that people had about what it was like to be a spiritual teacher. We have a traditional image. Each Zen master was a complete character.

  Frederick Lenz

  Spiritual, Teacher, Character

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• Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. His luminous presence and the simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives.

  Joanna Macy

  Teacher, Buddhist, Writing

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• If the Zen master sees that it will cause a person to progress, he will ask that person to do a task. The task is charged with power if it's performed properly. It's a koan between yourself and the Zen Master.

  Frederick Lenz

  Progress, Tasks, Causes

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• Don't seek the truth; just drop your opinions.

  Anthony

  Opinion

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  People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

  Nhat Hanh

  Motivational, Buddhist, Children

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