Topic: Daily Zen (Read 2115 times)

Ragnar · « **on:** June 08, 2006, 02:56:40 PM »

I just got a cute little fat book (desk calender size) called "The Little Zen Companion," by David Schiller. I thought it would be fun to post a few quotes from it every day (or when I remember to). Feel free to add your own, comment, or just enjoy.

Quotes begin with the next post...

Ragnar · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2006, 04:48:07 PM »

I'm not young enough to know everything. - J.M. Barrie

Good pitching will always stop good hitting, and vice versa.
- Casey Stengal

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. - Louis Armstrong

Every day people are straying away from church and going back to God.
- Lenny Bruce

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. - William Blake

As I grew up I became increasingly interested in philosophy, of which they [his family] profoundly disapproved. Every time the subject came up they repeated with unfailing ragularity, "What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind." After some fifty or sixty repetitions, this remark ceased to amuse me. - Bertrand Russell

My addendum to the previous thought:

Oh well, whatever, nevermind. - Nirvana

Bdean · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2006, 09:14:28 PM »

Quote

Every day people are straying away from church and going back to God.

This is a popular quote among those in the emergent church movment in Christianity. But, it also reminds me of the Zen proverb: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Ragnar · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2006, 03:51:30 PM »

Quote from: Bdean

Quote
Every day people are straying away from church and going back to God.

This is a popular quote among those in the emergent church movment in Christianity. But, it also reminds me of the Zen proverb: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Indeed. That's in the book. I never really got that one.

Ragnar · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2006, 04:05:04 PM »

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? - Dogen

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. - Robert M. Pirsig

We dance around in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
- Robert Frost

Everybody knows... - Leonard Cohen

Zagzagel · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2006, 04:24:41 PM »

hmmmm..interesting..I know things...all you got to do is ask.

Bdean · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2006, 10:12:15 PM »

Quote

This is a popular quote among those in the emergent church movment in Christianity. But, it also reminds me of the Zen proverb: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Indeed. That's in the book. I never really got that one.

Consider this interpretation:

The Buddha on the road is not the Buddha, as enlightenment comes from within.

Ragnar · « **Reply #7 on:** June 12, 2006, 09:11:45 AM »

Quote from: Bdean

Quote
This is a popular quote among those in the emergent church movment in Christianity. But, it also reminds me of the Zen proverb: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Indeed. That's in the book. I never really got that one.

Consider this interpretation:

The Buddha on the road is not the Buddha, as enlightenment comes from within.

ah, right, I figured it was something like that.

<--- closest smiley to a Buddha

Ragnar · « **Reply #8 on:** June 13, 2006, 05:27:27 PM »

The following passage is taken directly from the book:

Again and again students ask, "What is Buddha?" The Masters' seemingly nonsensical responses have survived over the centuries, often as koans.*

What is Buddha?

"Three pounds of flax." - Tung-shan

"Dried poo-poostick." - Yun-men

"This very mind." - Ma-tsu

"Not mind, not Buddha." - Ma-tsu

"What is not the Buddha?" - Nan-yang Hui-chung

"The cat is climbing up the post." - Pa-chiao Hui-ch'ing

"I never knew him." - Nan-yang Hui-chung

"Wait until there is one, for then I will tell you." - Nan-yang Hui-chung

"A new bride rides a donkey, the mother-in-law leads it." - Shou-shan

"When you utter the name of Buddha, wash out your mouth." - Zen saying

"Look within, thou art Buddha." - The Voice of the Silence

*Earlier in the book, there are a couple of pages worth about the koan. Among other things, it says, "Taken from the Japanese ko ("public") and an ("proposition"), the koan can be a question, an excerpt from the sutras, an episode in the life of an ancient Master, a word exchanged in a mondo, or any other fragment of teaching. There are some 1700 traditional koans in existence."

Zagzagel · « **Reply #9 on:** June 14, 2006, 05:44:28 PM »

It might be a suprise to some, but the 'bible' gives the answer... it is the light within.

Not many understand this light that is within... but the book of John answers this very question...tis the reason why we keep asking..."is there a god? or gods?"

Ragnar · « **Reply #10 on:** June 18, 2006, 08:08:33 PM »

A Zen Vocabulary

Kensho: self-realization; seeing into one's own nature

Jiriki: "one's own power," referring to a person's endeavor to attain enlightenment through his or her own efforts

Satori: a state of intuitive enlightenment, particularly the Enlightenment experienced by the Buddha

Bodhisattva: an enlightened being who renounces entry into nirvana until all other beings are saved

Ragnar · « **Reply #11 on:** June 26, 2006, 07:06:59 PM »

Maybe I should change this to weekly zen.

Things are entirely what they appear to be, and behind them... there is nothing. - Sartre

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. - Yasutani Roshi

We see men haying far in the meadow, their heads waving like the grass they cut. In the distance, the wind seemed to bend all alike. - Thoreau

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while
A great wind is bearing me across the sky.
- Ojibwa saying

Author Topic: Daily Zen (Read 2115 times)