The menu is not the meal.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.
If you really understand Zen, you can use any book, even the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation.
It is the mind that makes good or ill. That which makes us happy or sad; rich or poor.
There are no limitations to any of our dreams.
Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.
Experience is the harvest of life, and every harvest is the result of a sowing. The experience which young people must crave is that of success in some service for which they are naturally fitted.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
How beautiful the world was when one looked at it without searching, just looked, simply and innocently.
Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
No American ought to be compelled to strike for his rights. He ought to receive them naturally, easily, as a matter of course.
There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities.
Enjoy what other people do and learn from them.
I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.
What I greatly hope for these children everywhere, is a new attitude toward life–free from the gullibility which thinks we can get something for nothing; free from the greed which thinks any permanent good can come of overreaching others; and, above all, expectant of change, so that when life gives them a jolt they will be fully prepared to push on eagerly along new lines.
