A Little Zen

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The following are taken from The Little Zen Companion by David Schiller.

Yasutani Roshi

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

Mark Twain

There ain't no way to find out why a snorer can't hear himself snore.

Thoreau

Our life is frittered away by detail ... Simplify, simplify.

Chuang-Tsu

The purpose of a fishtrap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. 

The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. 

The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. 

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

Bulgarian Proverb

If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.

Yaqui Mystic

To be a man of knowledge one needs to be light and fluid.

Buddhist Proverb

When the student is ready, the Master appears.

Chinese Proverb

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

Basho

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Lew Welch

Someone showed it to me and I found it by myself.

Ts'ai Ken T'an

Water which is too pure has no fish.

Zen Saying

The one who is good at shooting does not hit the center of the target.

Tao Te Ching

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Word carved on a stone on John Ruskin's desk

TODAY.

Zen Parable

A man walking across a field encounters a tiger. He fled, the tiger chasing after him. Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Terrified, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger had come, waiting to eat him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little began to gnaw away at the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine in one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Goethe

Thinking is more interesting that knowing, but less interesting than looking.

William Hazlitt

Whatever interests, is interesting.

Tao Te Ching

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

Artur Schnabel

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides.

John Cage

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

R.H. Blyth

We walk, and our religion is shown (even to the dullest and most insensitive person) in how we walk. Or to put it more accurately, living in this world means choosing, choosing to walk, and the way we choose to walk is infallibly and perfectly expressed in the walk itself. Nothing can disguise it. The walk of an ordinary man and of an enlightened man are as different as that of a snake and a giraffe.

Folk Zen Saying

A heavy snowfall disappears into the sea. What silence!

Zen Saying

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound!

Woody Allen

I'm astounded by people who want to "know" the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.

W.H. Auden

To ask the hard question is simple.

Zen Koan

What is your face before your mother and father were born?

Thoreau

It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.

The three qualities necessary for training

Great faith. Great doubt. Great effort.

Albert Einstein

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.

Carl Jung

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Who is the Potter, pray, and who is the Pot?

Coco Chanel

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

John Lennon

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Samuel Johnson

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

Zen Mondo

A monk asked Chao-chou, "I have just entered the monastery: please give me some guidance." 

Chao-chou said, "Have you eaten your rice gruel?" 

The monk said,"Yes, I've eaten." 

Chao-chou said, "Then go wash your bowl."

Albert Einstein, three rules of work

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity. 

2. From discord, find harmony. 

3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Kahlil Gigran

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Robert M. Pirsig

So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one's self from one's surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.

Charles Dickens

He did each single thing as if he did nothing else.

Willa Cather

That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.

St. Anthony

The prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer recognizes himself or the fact that he is praying.

Rilke

-Children, one earthly Thing truly experienced, even once, is enough for a lifetime.

Zen Koan

What is the color of wind?

Ludwig Wittgenstein

The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.

Zen Story

Fa-yen, a Chinese Zen teacher, overheard four monks arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?" 

One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind." 

"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Fa-yen, "if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."

Lin-Chi

When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem.

Wallace Stevens

The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.

Zen Koan

Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in teh wind. One said, "The flag moves." The other said, "The wind moves." They argued back and forth but could not agree. Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch, said: "Gentlemen! It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves." The two monks were struck with awe.

Zen Saying

Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.

Shakespeare

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

The Buddha

Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a polluted mind, suffering will follow you, as the wheels of the oxcart follow the footsteps of the ox. Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind. If you speak and act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you, as a shadow clings to a form.

Spanish Proverb

It is notthe same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.

G. K. Chesterton

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.

Simone Weil

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

Zen Story

Two monks were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. 

"Come on, girl," siad the first monk. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. 

The second monk did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he said. "It is dangerous. Why did you do that?" 

"I left the girl there,: the first monk said. "Are you still carrying her?"

Zen Saying

When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man.

Zen Story

Wealthy patrons invited Ikkyu to a banquet. Ikkyu arrived dressed in his beggar's robes. The host, not recognizing hin, chased him away. Ikkyu went home, chaged into his ceremonial robe of purple brocade, and returned. With great respect, he was received into the banquet room. There, he put his robe on the cushion, saying, "I expect you invited the robe since you showed me away a little while ago," and left.

Erich Fromm

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself.

Dogen

You should study not only that you become a mother when your child is born, but also that you become a child.

Taoist Mondo

One day Chuang-tzu and a friend were walking along a riverbank. "How delightfully the fishes are enjoying themselves in the water!" Chuang-tzu exclaimed. 

"You are not a fish," his friend said. "How do you know whether or not the fishes are enjoying themselves?" 

"You are not me," Chuang-tzu said. "How do you know that I do not know that the fishes are enjoying themselves?"

Kentucky Folklore

"My feet are cold," one says, and the legless man replies: "So are mine. So are mine."

Zen Koan

When you can do nothing, what can you do?

Pablo Picasso

Computer are useless. They can only give the answers.

Krishnamurti

Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.

Tao te Ching

The more you know the less you understand.

Peter Matthiessen

In this very breath that we take now lies the secret that all great teachers try to tell us.

Both poverty and riches are a bondage

The power that wealth gives is a hindrance to the understanding of reality….

To renounce the world of wealth, comfort and position is a comparatively simple matter; but to put aside the craving to be, to become, demands great intelligence and understanding. The power that wealth gives is a hindrance to the understanding of reality, as is also the power of gift and capacity. This particular form of confidence is obviously an activity of the self; and though it is difficult to do so, this kind of assurance and power can be put aside. But what is much more subtle and more hidden is the power and the drive that lie in the craving to become. Self-expansion in any form, whether through wealth or through virtue, is a process of conflict, causing antagonism and confusion. A mind burdened with becoming can never be tranquil, for tranquillity is not a result either of practice or of time. Tranquillity is a state of understanding, and becoming denies this understanding.    

J.Krishnamurti, Commentaries on living-First Series, Chapter-7

Ponder over these questions:

• Why do we want to become somebody or something in this world?
• What are the ways in which "Becoming" expresses itself in me? Can I watch it in myself?

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Both poverty and riches are a bondage

Both poverty and riches are a bondage. The consciously poor and the consciously rich are the playthings of circumstances. Both are corruptible, for both seek that which is corrupting: power. Power is greater than possessions; power is greater than wealth and ideas. These do give power; but they can be put away, and yet the sense of power remains. One may beget power through simplicity of life, through virtue, through the party, through renunciation; but such means are a mere substitution and they should not deceive one. The desire for position, prestige and power - the power that is gained through aggression and humility, through asceticism and knowledge, through exploitation and self-denial - is subtly persuasive and almost instinctive. Success in any form is power, and failure is merely the denial of success. To be powerful, to be successful is to be slavish, which is the denial of virtue. Virtue gives freedom, but it is not a thing to be gained. Any achievement, whether of the individual or of the collective, becomes a means to power. Success in this world, and the power that self-control and self-denial bring, are to be avoided; for both distort understanding. It is the desire for success that prevents humility; and without humility how can there be understanding? The man of success is hardened, self-enclosed; he is burdened with his own importance, with his responsibilities, achievements and memories. There must be freedom from self-assumed responsibilities and from the burden of achievement; for that which is weighed down cannot be swift, and to understand requires a swift and pliable mind. Mercy is denied to the successful, for they are incapable of knowing the very beauty of life which is love.

J.Krishnamurti, Commentaries on living-First Series, Chapter-33

Ponder over these questions:

• What are the ways in which my mind seeks security, success?
• What has ambition done to people? Without ambition would I stagnate?
• Can I not live a good life without being ambitious? What is a "Good life"?

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Agitated Mind

Our mind is agitated because we have problems…

Quietness of mind, tranquillity of mind, is not a thing to be produced by will-power, by any action of desire; if it is, then such a mind is enclosed, isolated, it is a dead mind and therefore incapable of adaptability, of pliability, of swiftness. Such a mind is not creative. Our question, then, is not how to make the mind still but to see the truth of every problem as it presents itself to us. It is like the pool that becomes quiet when the wind stops. Our mind is agitated because we have problems; and to avoid the problems, we make the mind still. Now the mind has projected these problems and there are no problems apart from the mind; and so long as the mind projects any conception of sensitivity, practises any form of stillness, it can never be still. When the mind realizes that only by being still is there understanding—then it becomes very quiet. That quietness is not imposed, not disciplined, it is a quietness that cannot be understood by an agitated mind.

J. Krishnamurti – The First & Last Freedom

What prevents this quietness of mind is obviously conflict

Most of us are in such turmoil, worried about so many things, anxious about life, death, security, and our relationships. There is constant agitation; and it is extremely difficult, naturally, for a mind that is so agitated to understand the every-increasing social as well as psychological problems. And it is essential, is it not? that to understand a problem completely, there should be a silent mind, a mind that is not biased, a mind that is capable of being free, still, and allowing the problem to reveal itself, unfold itself. And such a quiet mind is not possible when there is conflict. Now, what makes for conflict? Why are we in such conflict, each one of us, and so society, and so the State and the whole world? Why? From what does conflict arise? When conflict ceases, obviously there can be a peaceful mind; but a mind that is caught in conflict cannot be tranquil. So, if we would understand the process of conflict, and how it arises, then perhaps there would be a possibility of the mind being free, quiet.

J. Krishnamurti, London, 1949

How can a man who is tortured by ambition have a still mind?

A mind which has many hidden drawers, hidden cupboards with innumerable skeletons held down by will, by denial, by suppression, how can such a mind be still? It can be driven, willed to be still; but is that stillness? A man who is hanging on to passion, who is lustful and has suppressed it, held it down, how can such a man have a calm, still, rich, mind? A man who is tortured by ambition and therefore frustrated, and who tries to fly from that frustration through every means of escape, how can such a man have a still mind? It is only when ambition is understood, when the problems of ambition, with its frustrations, with its conflicts, with its ruthlessness, have been understood, that the mind becomes quiet. By looking into oneself deeply, opening all the cupboards, all the drawers, unearthing all the skeletons and understanding them, the mind becomes quiet. You cannot have stillness of mind with locked doors.

J. Krishnamurti, Bombay, 1948

This silence demands intense psychological work

Silence is difficult and arduous, it is not to be played with. It isn’t something that you can experience by reading a book, or by listening to a talk, or by sitting together, or by retiring into a wood or a monastery. I am afraid none of these things will bring about this silence. This silence demands intense psychological work. You have to be burningly aware—aware of your speech, aware of your snobbishness, aware of your fears, your anxieties, your sense of guilt. And when you die to all that, then out of that dying comes the beauty of silence.

J. Krishnamurti, London, 1962

State of Silence

You must come to that state of silence; 
otherwise you are really not a religious person; 
out of that immense silence there is that which is sacred.

You cannot carefully calculate and enter the unknown…

The religious mind is the mind that has entered into the unknown, and you cannot come to the unknown except by jumping; you cannot carefully calculate and enter the unknown. 

You have to find out what truth is…

You have to find out what truth is because that is the only thing that matters, not whether you are rich or poor, not whether you are happily married and have children, because they all come to an end, there is always death. So, without any form of belief, you must find out.

Religion is the feeling of goodness…

Religion is the feeling of goodness, that love which is like the river, living, moving everlastingly. In that state you will find there comes a moment when there is no longer any search at all; and this ending of search is the beginning of something totally different. 

…leave the pool you have dug for yourself…

The search for God, for truth, the feeling of being completely good—not the cultivation of goodness, of humility, but the seeking out of something beyond the inventions and tricks of the mind, which means having a feeling for that something, living in it, being it—that is true religion. But you can do that only when you leave the pool you have dug for yourself and go out into the river of life. Then life has an astonishing way of taking care of you, because then there is no taking care on your part. Life carries you where it will because you are part of itself; then there is no problem of security, of what people say or don’t say, and that is the beauty of life. 

…only then that which is eternal and timeless comes into being

Only when the mind is wholly silent, completely inactive, not projecting, when it is not seeking and is utterly still—only then that which is eternal and timeless comes into being.

God, truth, or reality, is not to be known by a mind that is confused…

God, truth, or reality, is not to be known by a mind that is confused, conditioned, limited. How can such a mind think of reality or God? It has first to decondition itself. It has to free itself from its own limitations, and only then can it know what God is, obviously not before. Reality is the unknown, and that which is known is not the real.

… for him the blessing of the sacred comes into being

When the mind is completely alone, uncontaminated, which means that the movement of the known has come to an end—it is only then that there is a possibility of a tremendous revolution, a fundamental change… The religious man is he who does not belong to any religion, to any nation, to any race, who is inwardly completely alone, in a state of not-knowing, and for him the blessing of the sacred comes into being. 

Intelligence is mind and heart in full harmony

So to discover God or truth—and I say such a thing does exist, I have realized it—to recognize that, to realize that, the mind must be free of all the hindrances that have been created throughout the ages, based on self-protection and security. You cannot be free of security by merely saying that you are free. To penetrate the walls of these hindrances, you need to have a great deal of intelligence, not mere intellect. Intelligence, to me, is mind and heart in full harmony; and then you will find out for yourself, without asking anyone, what that reality is. 

from The Book of Life

J. Krishnamurti

Perfect Tranquility

“A group of spiritual leaders from Calcutta once conspired against Lahiri Mahasay.  They invited him to join in an evening discussion on spiritual matters.  Lahiri Mahasay accepted the invitation and accordingly attended the meeting.

“The conspirators had well prepared themselves to trap Lahiri Mahasay.  For example, if Lahiri Mahasay were to express his preference for a particular deity, or Istadev, ‘desired Lord,’ then a particular leader would find exception to that choice.

“In fact, each  member of the group selected a particular Devata, ‘deity’ such as Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Lord Siva, the Goddess Kali (the Divine Mother) and prepared to debate and challenge Lahiri Mahasay’s choice.

“As soon as Lahiri Mahasay arrived, he was received in the traditional manner and shown proper courtesy.  After a while one of the members of the group asked Lahiri Mahasay, ‘Upon which deity do you meditate?’

“Lahiri Mahasay looked at him but did not reply.  Then another gentleman asked him, ‘Who is your Istadev, “desired deity?”’  Lahiri Mahasay turned his head towards him and looked at him in the same way, while keeping his peace.

“Finally, a third gentleman asked him, ‘Can you tell us upon which deity usually you meditate?’

“Lahiri Mahasay faced him and said very gently, ‘I meditate on Sthirattva (Tranquility).’

“The gentleman replied that he did not understand what was meant by this.  Lahiri Mahasay continued to observe silence.  After some time, another gentleman asked him, ‘Could you please explain this?  I do not understand exactly what  you are saying.’

“Lahiri Mahasay, as before, continued to maintain silence.  Another gentleman asked, ‘Can you enlighten me as to what you mean by that?  I do not understand at all!’  Lahiri Baba told him, ‘You will not be able to understand, and also I will not be able to make you understand (realize) through words.’

“The group was at a loss.  All of their preparation and conniving had come to naught.  Only silence prevailed.  All kept silent.

“After a long time Lahiri Mahasay got up and silently prepared to leave the meeting.  All showed him the traditional courtesy as he left.”

As Paramhansa Yogananda, who made Lahiri Mahashaya known in the West, often said: “He who knows, knows–none else knows.”