Zen Quotes! 100 Short & Famous Zen Quotes and Sayings On Life

Zen Quotes

• “Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realization.” —Gene Clark
• “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.” —Koun Yamada
• “Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s being, and it points to the way from bondage to freedom.” —D.T. Suzuki
• “Zen is a path of liberation. It liberates you. It is freedom from the first step to the last. You are not required to follow any rules; you are required to find out your own rules and your own life in the light of awareness.” —Osho

Short Zen Quotes

• “Act without expectation.” —Lao Tzu
• “Singlemindedness is all-powerful.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo
• “Not creating delusions is enlightenment.” —Bodhidharma
• “Life begins where fear ends.” —Osho
• “Words diminish meanings; these words included.” —Unknown
• “Become comfortable with not knowing.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Be present above all else.” —Naval Ravikant
• “Think with your whole body.” —Taisen Deshimaru
• “Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” —Dogen
• “This will never come again.” —Steve Hagen
• “Don’t try to steer the river.” —Deepak Chopra
• “Roads were made for journeys not destinations.” —Confucius
• “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle.” —Confucius
• “Body and mind dropped off.” —Dogen (on enlightenment)
• “Zen has no business with ideas.” —D.T. Suzuki
• “Sleep is the best meditation.” —14th Dalai Lama
• “Your mind wants control. Life wants change.” —Maxime Lagacé
• “Do not be too interested in Zen.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “A zen master’s life is one continuous mistake.” —Dogen
• “To live – is that not enough.” —D.T. Suzuki
• “Movement is evil. Being still is good.” —Ben Caesar
• “All things are difficult before they are easy.” —Thomas Fuller
• “Don’t be afraid to just sit and watch.” —Anthony Bourdain
• “The more you know, the less you need.” —Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia)
• “Love all. Serve all. Help ever. Hurt never.” —Sathya Sai Baba
• “To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.” —Confucius
• “Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.” —Dogen
• “Now I know what success is: living your truth, sharing it.” —Kamal Ravikant
• “In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo
“I follow four dictates: face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go.” —Sheng-yen

Famous Zen Quotes

• “Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.” —Bodhidharma
• “The essence of the Way is detachment.” —Bodhidharma
• “If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.” —Confucius
• “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” —Lao Tzu
• “All know the way, but few actually walk it.” —Bodhidharma
• “The first and the best victory is to conquer self.” —Plato
• “To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” —Confucius
• “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” —Bruce Lee
• “Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.” —Dogen
• “Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.” —Zen Proverb
• “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” —Zen Proverb
• “To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.” —Dogen
• “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.” —Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind)
• “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” —14th Dalai Lama
• “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” —Lao Tzu
• “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” —14th Dalai Lama
• “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” —Buddha
• “Let go over a cliff, die completely, and then come back to life — after that you cannot be deceived.” —Zen Proverb
• “When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man.” —Zen Proverb
• “The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.” —Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein

Inspirational Zen Quotes

• “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Confuse them with your silence and amaze them with your actions.” —Unknown
• “Little people overwhelmed by emotions. Zen people are calm and detached.” —Maxime Lagacé
• “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” —Lao Tzu
• “Truth makes you rise to new heights, no matter where you are. Kamal —Ravikant
• “These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” —Najwa Zebian
• “Unhappiness and rain just drift by and are gone, they are visitors.” —John Aske
• “We just let it happen… and that’s the beauty of this technique.” —Bob Ross
• “Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” —―Buddha
• “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” —Sun Tzu (See also: uplifting quotes)
• “My daily affairs are quite ordinary; but I’m in total harmony with them.” —Layman Pang
• “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.” —Soyen Shaku
• “I don’t hold on to anything, don’t reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict.” —Layman Pang
• “Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.” —Dogen
• “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.” —Koun Yamada
• “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” —Lyndon B. Johnson
• “Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.” —Zen Proverb
• “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.” —Huang Po
• “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” —Confucius
• “It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.” —Jon J. Muth
• “A man is great not because he hasn’t failed; a man is great because failure hasn’t stopped him.” —Confucius
• “The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.” —Thich Nhat Hahn
• “Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” —Jack Kornfield
• “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” —Sun Tzu
• “If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.” —Confucius
• “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.” —D.T. Suzuki
• “Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai)
• “To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.” —Thich Nhat Hạnh
• “As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.” —Buddha
• “There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” —14th Dalai Lama
• “You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.” —Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
• “Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai)

Zen Quotes on Peace of Mind

• “Let go, or be dragged.” —Zen Proverb
• “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” —Thích Nhất Hạnh
• “The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.” —Ram Dass
• “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” —Dalai Lama
• “The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.” —Confucius
• “When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.” —Huang Po
• “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” —Dalai Lama
• “To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.” —Suzuki Roshi
• “Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.”― Thich Nhat Hanh
• “certain amount of “sitting just to sit” might well be the best thing in the world for the jittery minds and agitated bodies […].”― Alan W. Watts
• “If you are depressed, you are living in the past, if you are anxious, you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” —Lao Tzu
“Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, “It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.”― Shunryu Suzuki

Positive Thinking Zen Quotes

• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” —Lao Tzu
• “The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.”― Shunryu Suzuki
• “You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.” —Robert M. Pirsig
• “The three elements of creativity are thus: loving, knowing, and doing – or heart, mind, and hands – or, as Zen Buddhist teaching has it; great faith, great question, and great courage.” —Eric Maisel
• “Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Best Zen Quotes

• “Still your waters.” —Josh Waitzkin
• “Relax. Nothing’s missing.” —Maxime Lagacé
• “I live by letting things happen.” —Dogen
• “Relax. Nothing is under control.” —Adi Da
• “Wherever you are, be there totally.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Who you are is always right.” —Ming-Dao Deng
• “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” —Confucius
• “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. —Alan Watts
• “Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.” —Seng-ts’an
• “When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it. —Dogen
• “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” —Buddha
• “One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them.” —Masanobu Fukuoka
• “Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand – relax. —Osho
• “Every experience is a lesson. Every loss is a gain. —Sathya Sai Baba
• “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.” —Eric Hoffer
• “I don’t mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom. —Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The less you try to impress, the more peaceful you can be. —Maxime Lagacé
• “Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home.” —Zhuangzi
• “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun. —Alan Watts
• “And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.” —Dr. Seuss
• “Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.” —Lin Yutang
• “Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention. —Robert Greene
• “Learn to be comfortable in adversity but most importantly, learn to be comfortable when you’re bored.” —Maxime Lagacé
• “Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?” —Lao Tzu
• “The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands. —Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
• “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. —Lao Tzu
• “The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. —Shunryu Suzuki (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, Amazon book)
• “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. —Bruce Lee

Zen Quotes on Life

• “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” —Bodhidharma
• “The real meditation is how you live your life.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn
• “Wise men don’t judge – they seek to understand.” —Wei Wu Wei
• “One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.” —Dogen
• “Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.” —Buddha
• “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” —Prema Chödrön
• “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” —Sharon Salzberg
• “And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.” —Seuss
• “Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life.” —Unknown
• “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” —Sonia Ricotti
• “Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.” —Jack Kornfield
• “Do not follow the idea of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.” —Dōgen Zenji
• “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.” —Huang Po
• “If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!” —Thich Nhat Hanh
• “At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.” —Chuang Tzu
• “What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favourite day,” said Pooh. – A. A Milne
• “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” —Buddha
• “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” —Thich Nhat Hahn
• “When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that’s exactly the way we want it to be.” —Bob Dylan
• “As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.” —Buddha
• “This dew like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.” —Dōgen Zenji
• “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” —Alan Watts
• “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” —Lao Tzu
• “Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur some place other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are.” —Karen Maezen Miller
• “If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the foundation for loving another person.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” —Dalai Lama
• “Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.” —Joko Beck
• “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” —Buddha
• “There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.” —Yamamoto Tsunetomo
“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”―Thich Nhat Hanh

Zen Quotes about Mind

• “The word ‘innocence’ means a mind that is incapable of being hurt.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “It is only with total humility, and in absolute stillness of mind that we can know what indeed we are.” —Wei Wu Wei
• “You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.” —Michael Ende
• “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. ”―Shunryu Suzuki
“Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.” —Huang Po

Zen Quotes On Happiness

• “All I can guarantee you is that as long as you are searching for happiness, you will remain unhappy.” —U. G. Krishnamurti
• “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
• “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”―Thich Nhat Hanh
• “A world which increasingly consists of destinations without journeys between them, a world which values only “getting somewhere” as fast as possible, becomes a world without substance.”― Alan W. Watts
• “Happiness only comes when you let go of who you think you are. If you think you are wealthy and powerful and noble and truthful or horrible and demonic, whatever it may be, it is all a waste of time.” —Frederick Lenz
“The more you suffer, the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life. All great artists, all great religious leaders, and all great social reformers have come out of the intensest struggles which they fought bravely, quite frequently in tears and with bleeding hearts.”―D.T. Suzuki

Zen Quotes On Truth

• “To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.” —Suzuki Roshi
• “Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it.” —Dogen
• “If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.” —Bodhidharma
• “If you want to get the plain truth, be not concerned with right and wrong. The conflict between right and wrong Is the sickness of the mind.”―Alan W. Watts
“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinion for or against.” —Sengcan

Famous Zen Buddhism Quotes

• “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” —Dalai Lama
• “These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.” —Najwa Zebian
• “Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” —Buddha
• “It is easy to believe we are each waves and forget we are also the ocean.” —John J. Muth
• “All that we are, is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”―Buddha
• “The true purpose (of Zen) is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point; we just do what we should do – like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.”―Shunryu Suzuki
“Buddhism teaches that joy and happiness arise from letting go. Please sit down and take an inventory of your life. There are things you have been hanging on to that really are not useful and deprive you of your freedom. Find the courage to let them go.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

Zen Quotes On Spirituality

• “Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.” —Dogen
• “Those who are awake, live in a state of constant amazement.” —Buddha
• “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” —Zenrin Kushû
• “Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.” —Hsi-Tan
• “Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?” ― Zhuangzi”
• “If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” —Dogen
• ”I have not heard of a single Buddha, past or present,who has been enlightened by sacred prayers and scriptures.” —Bassui
• “Being spiritual has nothing to do with what you believe and everything to do with your state of consciousness.”―Eckhart Tolle
• “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.” —Bodhidharma
• “I would rather sink to the bottom of the sea for endless eons than seek liberation through all the saints of the universe. ” —Shih-t’ou
• “It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering, not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness.” —Osho
• “Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.” —Joko Beck
• “If you would spend all your time – walking, standing, sitting or lying down – learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining the goal.” —Huang Po
• “Well versed in the Buddha Way, I go the non-Way. Without abandoning my ordinary person’s affairs. The conditioned and name-and-form, all are flowers in the sky. Nameless and formless, I leave birth-and death.” —Pang Yun, Two Zen Classics
• “However deep your Knowledge of the scriptures, It is no more than a strand of hair In the vastness of space; However important appears Your worldly experience, It is but a drop of water in a deep ravine” —Tokusan
• “My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the moon. You don’t have to become my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.” —Osho
• “Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go on its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.” —Sheng-yen
• “Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as water.” —Ch’uan Teng Lu

Zen Quotes On Nature

• “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”―Lao Tzu
• “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” —Matsuo Basho
• “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”―Thich Nhat Hanh
• “As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.” —Buddha
• “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”―Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.”―Shunryu Suzuki

Zen Quotes on Change

• “Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.” —Max Frisch
• “Whether we like it or not, change comes, and the greater the resistance, the greater the pain.” —Alan Watts
• “For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
• “When we realize the everlasting truth of ‘everything changes’ and find our composure in it, we find ourselves in Nirvana.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”― Lao Tzu
• “The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.”―Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.” —Albert Einstein

Funny Zen Quotes

• “I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” —Dalai Lama
• “Your mind is a mad monkey trying to understand life which is unfair and crazy. Get used to it.” —Maxime Lagace
• “When you have understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can’t understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom.” —Jack Kerouac
• “Craziness is good. Crazy people are happy, free, they have no hindrance. But since you have many attachments, you are only a little crazy. This is not crazy enough. You must become completely crazy. Then you will understand.” —Seungsahn

Zen Quotes and Sayings

• “Think with your whole body.” —Taisen Deshimaru
• “The world is its own magic.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “Wherever you are, be there totally.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “What was never lost can never be found.” —Zen Saying
• “People living deeply have no fear of death.” —Anais Nin
• “We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.” —Rumi
• “Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.” —Buddha
• “It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.” —Seneca
• “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” —Meister Eckhart
• “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” —Buddha
• “Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand — relax.” —Osho
• “Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realization.” —Gene Clark
• “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
• “Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.” —Jim Butcher
• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.” —Sharon Salzberg
• “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” —Alan W. Watts
• “To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.” —Dogen Zenji
• “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” —Shunryu Suzuki
• “When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms.” —Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
• “You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.” —Buddha
• “In the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am – unbound.” —Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
• “In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.” —Dogen Zenji
• “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” —Wu-Men
• “The way out is through the door. Why it is that no one will use this method?” —Confucius
• “Recognize the ego for what it is: a collective dysfunction, the insanity of the human mind.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “If you have inner peace, nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.” —Sri Chinmoy
• “A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.” —Saul Bellow
• “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.” —Huang Po
• “We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.” —Jack Kornfield
• “My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now.” —Byron Katie
• “One who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers a thousand times a thousand on the battlefield.” —Buddha
• “Practice is this life, and realization is this life, and this life is revealed right here and now.” —Maezumi Roshi
• “I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.” —Pema Chödrön
• “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” —Yoda
• “When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness & all forms of no forgiveness are caused by too much past & not enough presence.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” —Alan Watts
• “In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.” —Buddha
• “You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.” —Dogen Zenji
• “Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” —Zhuang Zhou
• “The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I’m looking for the truth, and so it goes away. Puzzling.” —Robert M. Pirsig
• “Zen teaches that if we can open up to the inevitability of our demise, we can begin to transform and lighten up about it.” —Allen Klein
• “I come to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and stars.” —Dogen Zenji
• “The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.” —Eckhart Tolle
• “Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance.” —Taisen Deshimaru
• “This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” —Alan Watts
• “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” —Jalaluddin Rumi
• “Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.” —Ray Bradbury
• “If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or sake. Meditation is drinking it! —Taisen Deshimaru