Frederick Franck
Dutch painter (1909-2006)
Frederick Sigfred Franck (12 April 1909 – 5 June 2006) was a painter, sculptor, and author of many books on Buddhism and human spirituality.
Quotes
editEchoes from the Bottomless Well (1985)
edit- … each dot: the center of a circle without circumference …
- p. 2
- "Is there anything more miraculous than the wonders of nature?" the monk asked.
The Master answered: "Yes! Your awareness, your understanding of the wonders of nature."- p. 8
- a single leaf falling
autumn is everywhere…- p. 10
- Illusion is the mantle of the Real
- p. 16
- The sinner's ego is crude
that of the saint refined,
distilled. Careful! It may
be more poisonous!- p. 21
- When a monk complained about the world's evil, the Buddha stretched his hand toward the Earth: "on this Earth I attained Liberation."
- p. 22
- I am neither I
nor Other,
both I and other…- p. 26
- How old are you?
As old as the Buddha.
And how old is the Buddha?
As old as I am- p. 28
all at once
I saw
that the sun
was round!Since then
I have been the happiest man on Earth!- p. 29
- The Tao cannot be divided, it cannot be shared
- p. 37
- The clearsighted eye turns the light back
to see its own Original Nature…- p. 38
"What are you?"
— I am no What!I am only I …
In relation to you!- p. 40
- The Void is a living void
… pulsating in endless rhythms of creation
and destruction. The great Void does not
exist as Void, it embraces all
Being/non-Being- p. 63
- Do you believe in God?
I, I believe in nothing but God!- p. 65
- "Do you believe in God?"
"Which one?"- p. 67
- The religions are delusional constructs formed around an infallible core.
- p. 74
- It is not that things are delusory but their separateness in the fabric of the Whole that is illusory…
- p. 77
- People walking?
Karma walking …
Buddha nature walking..!- p. 82
- If you still have to talk
about Ultimate Reality
See how it manifests itself
nakedly
in
Every thing!- p. 89
- In the beginngless beginning
there was
the Meaning- p. 92
- When the Christ says I:
it is the I of all the Masters:
the Way, the Truth,
the Life- p. 94
- I and the Father are not-two!
- p. 95
- the grasses
whisper
"This
is
my
Body"- p. 98
- Innumerable Buddhas
Enlightened…
innumerable Christs crucified…
always the same Christ, the same Buddha!- p. 102
- Even if there had never been a Buddha nor a Christ
CHRIST NATURE IS!
BUDDHA NATURE IS!- p. 103
- "Nothing burns in hell but ego" says Tauler.
Does anything live but Buddha Nature, Christ Spirit?- p. 120
- The cross of the Cruxifixion — without the cross of the Resurrection is the symbol of a mutilated Christianity.
- p. 121
- They do not see what they look at, hence they know not what they do.
- p. 124
- the distance
between this pigeon's brain
and mine
is minute compared to that
between mine
and Bodhi's
Wisdom
Compassion- p. 137
- Life ends with the previous thought
It is resurrected with the subsequent One- p. 143
Quotes about Franck
edit- Above all else, Franck was a bridge builder whose marvelous combination of art and spirituality points to a new way of being in the twenty-first century. He calls it transreligious: "outside the categories of both 'interfaith' and 'ecumenical' . . . even less a syncretistic scrambling together of symbols, concepts, and rituals of the various religious traditions." He clearly had great respect for each tradition and found in his art and writing ways to convey "the inner experience in which these traditions converge."