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Thread: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

  1. #1

    Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    As the title says really. Do you have a favourite zen related aphorism, quote, on-liner or saying?












    (I'm doing some boring work and wondering mind is kicking in. I suspect I will start housework in a bit (shudders) so humour me please)

  2. #2

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Do you :?: :wink:

  3. #3

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Can't resist.

    The end of the story goes:

    Have you eaten?

    Yes.

    Then wash your bowl.
    (my favorite three words in Zen, so far--wash your bowl! :P
    Gassho, ann

  4. #4

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Hello!



    Wide open space, nothing holy.



    Gassho,

    Hans

  5. #5

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Titles of books and what not ie:

    Branching streams flow in the Dark
    The merging of relative and absolute
    Opening the hand of thought
    etc.

    Will

  6. #6

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Hi,

    The following, I think, falls under the "et cetera" bit (did'nt know where else to put it, heard it when I was a child and for some reason it keeps popping up in various sources lately):

    As i was going up the stair
    I met a man who was'nt there,
    He was'nt there again today.
    I wish to God he'd go away.

    Hughes Mearns, "Antigonish"

    ( laughter then and laughter now!)

    Many blessings,
    Lora

  7. #7

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Hi.

    Don't separate things in warm and cold.

    May the force be with you
    Tb

  8. #8

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    One of my teachers, a zen priest ordained by Zengaku Soyu Matsuoka Roshi, Rev. Robert McNeil had 3 statements.
    It seemed to me those three and silence itself are all anyone really needs to conduct themselves in the world:

    Is that so.

    We'll see.

    Thank you. (Thank you very much).

    Don't take my word for it. Try them yourself. See if you can make it through the day using only these three responses (of course you would choose the one suitable for the situation/occasion).

    And who says we zen folk don't know how to have fun?

  9. #9

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Quote Originally Posted by plankton
    As the title says really. Do you have a favourite zen related aphorism, quote, on-liner or saying?
    "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." - S. Suzuki

    "Sadly, the words immediately begin to crumble and fail the heart's knowing. As several Zen teachers have pointed out, open your mouth and you have made your first mistake..."
    --James Ford (UU Minister & Soto Zen Priest)

    Not Buddhist....but


    "Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you."
    --"Sand and Foam" by Kahlil Gibran

    I use it alot on my emails. :wink: :mrgreen:

  10. #10
    disastermouse
    Guest

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    "Those stone Buddhas deserve all the bird shit they get,
    I wave my skinny arms,
    Like a tall flower in the breeze" - Ikkyu

  11. #11

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Hi,

    From birth until death -- it's just this.
    (from the Shinji Shobogenzo)


    Gassho
    Ken

  12. #12

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    From the 'Ol Blue Eyed Buddha ...

    Scooby-dooby-do
    Do-do-dah-di-dah
    Dah-dah-dah-di-dah
    Dah-di-do-di-dah

    etc. etc. (to ininity)

  13. #13

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Mu

  14. #14

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Some beautiful, some abstract and (I suspect) some not taking this seriously :wink:

    Thanks for all of the replies and feel free in posting more.

    One of my own is

    "As things are viewed, so they appear to be".
    Not sure where is comes from.

    Right, back to house work.

  15. #15

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    I'm not sure who actually said this and I admit I got it from a Microsoft commercial but I think it works surprisingly well:

    I'm a human being. Not a human thinking. Not a human doing. A human being.

  16. #16

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Hi y'all,

    Don't Believe Everything You Think (from a bumpersticker)

    "Remember, enlightenment is not what you think it is" - Hogen Bays, Sensei

    cheers,
    r

  17. #17
    Sunshine
    Guest

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    My favorite is ... "whatever you do, don't wobble".

    Too bad I can't live up to it, eh?

    Then there is Stephen J Gould's "Nature is what she is - amoral and persistent". :mrgreen:

    And finally, two really good one from T.S. Eliot
    Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
    Teach us to care and not to care
    Teach us to sit still.

    Now, if I could figure out how to care and not care . . . by god, I think I would be . . . zen.

    Sunshine

  18. #18
    disastermouse
    Guest

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    I also like:

    "In all the world, nothing is hidden." (a tenzo to Dogen).

  19. #19

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    My favourite is: "Who is dragging this corpse around?"

    Or should this be in the big questions thread?

    cheers,

    Paul

  20. #20

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    A favorite of mine from Shunryu Suzuki:

    "The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so."

    Take care,
    Eric

  21. #21

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    A flash of lightning in the dark.

  22. #22

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    No matter where you go, there you are.

  23. #23

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffLegg
    No matter where you go, there you are.
    dag nabbit! i was gonna use that one. zen, Buckaroo Bonzai style

  24. #24

    Re: Your favourite zen aphorism, quote et cetera?

    And if you can't be, with the one you love, honey,
    Love the one you're with.
    Doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo,
    doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo,
    doo doo doo, doo doo doooo.

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