Press "Enter" to skip to content

Quotes

From: The Gateless Barrier – Zenkei Shibayama Teisho on the Koan: ”Bell-Sound and Priest’s Robe’

From the standpoint of the world, I-myself am the world. From the standpoint of I-myself, the world is I-myself. When the world is I-myself, there is no self. When there is no self, the whole world is nothing but I-myself, and this is the true no-mind of Zen. When one lives with this no-mind, can there be anything to obstruct I-myself? What can there be, then, to restrict the world? “The world is vast and wide” refers to this no-mind. Students seeking after the truth must first attain this no-mind themselves.

*******

Zen Master Bassui (1327-1387)

“The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither color nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pain…What is the essence of mind? Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in the pure air.”

******

Zen Master Mumon (1183-1260)

He used no high-flown words;

Before the mouth is opened, “it” is revealed.

If you keep on chattering glibly,

Know you may never get “It”.

******

Lao Tzu

The Tao is infinite and eternal. Why eternal? It was never born so it can never die. Why Infinite? It has no desire for itself. so it’s present for all beings.