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Talk:Zen proverbs

Latest comment: 11 years ago by BD2412 in topic Deletion discussion
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I think putting an explanation of a zen proverb is kind of inappropriate.

I agree. In fact I think we stopped putting meanings against any quotations near the beginning of the project. Notes are sometimes needed to explain the context of a quote, but just rewording a quotation detracts rather than adds to it. Nanobug 14:29, 5 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The words are interesting enough to attract attention and distract from a pure experience...is that why the (Chinese?) consider an interesting life to be a curse?

Sources?

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Latest comment: 14 years ago6 comments6 people in discussion
  • No the quotes from Stargate SG1 were taken from Zen Buddhist sayings and texts that have been around long before SG1. - zenpractioner


A good blogpost debunking some of these sayings. http://tim.2wgroup.com/blog/archives/001916.html (not by me)

Any source that the Stargate saying preceeded Stargate?

Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own.
--H. G. Bohn [1]
The tighter you squeeze the less you have.
Thomas Merton, American Trappist Monk. Merton dabbled with Buddhism
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_tighter_you_squeeze-the_less_you_have/225623.html

The tighter you squeeze the more star systems will slip through your fingers. - Princess Leia to Darth Vader

Zen students must learn to waste time conscientiously.
Another Thomas Merton quote, which appears to have been altered. The original: "Waste time conscientiously with God" -- a rather un-Buddhist reference to the deity of Western monotheism.
A weed is a plant whose virtues are only waiting to be discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
You do not wait for fulfilment, but brace yourself for failure.
Seems to have originated from Eugen Harrigel:

A Nazi party member who studied archery under a teacher who did not self-identify as a Zen master.



also, Zen Buddhists do not seek "the one" so "the ways to the one are as many as the lives of men" does not seem very 'Zen.' Source? --76.166.24.76 03:15, 13 October 2008 (UTC)Reply

  • "A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin where he would go after he died."...

Seems to be from Philip Kapleau, although the snippet view won't let me verify this. --Gwern 19:55, 14 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Citations

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Latest comment: 14 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

"At first, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. Then, I saw mountains were not mountains and rivers were not rivers. Finally, I see mountains again as mountains, and rivers again as rivers."

This seems to be from 《五燈會元》卷十七《青原惟信禪師》, where 青原惟信禪師 is the author, though I have no valid translations to the name. Darksign 07:21, 20 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

Unsourced

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Unknown

  • Zen is selling water by the river. (after Harada Daiun Sogaku roshi's last words)
  • There's no meaning to a flower unless it blooms.
  • Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish (your) opinions.


Hsin Hsin Ming

  • If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
  • In the landscape of spring, there is neither better nor worse. The flowering branches grow naturally, some long, some short.
  • Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.
  • The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear.
  • The ways to the One are as many as the lives of men.
  • Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.
  • To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.
  • To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.
  • When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.
  • Why do you ask questions? If you already knew the flame was fire then the meal was cooked a long time ago. (Oma Desala, Stargate SG-1; various)
  • At first, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. Then, I saw mountains were not mountains and rivers were not rivers. Finally, I see mountains again as mountains, and rivers again as rivers.
  • If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can't be solved.
  • Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
  • Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.


Basho

  • An autumn night... don't think your life didn't matter.
  • There is nothing you can see that is not a flower; there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.


Ugo Betti

  • At any given moment, I open my eyes and exist. And before that, during all eternity, what was there? Nothing.


Chuang-tzu

  • The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
  • It is everywhere.
  • To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.


Dogen

  • If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
  • Zazen is itself enlightenment.
  • The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
  • There is no beginning to practice nor end to enlightenment; There is no beginning to enlightenment nor end to practice.


T.S. Eliot

  • And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.


Fen-Yang

  • When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.


Hakuin

  • Should you desire great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.


Hui-neng

  • Zen: Seeing into one's own nature.


koan

  • How do you step from the top of a 100-foot pole?


Muso Kokushi

  • It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.


Lao Tzu

  • We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
  • A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.


Oscar Levant

  • So little time, so little to do.


Robert M. Pirsig

  • The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.


Yasutani Roshi

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


Baba Ram Dass

  • The quieter you become, the more you can hear.


Albert Schweitzer (paraphrased)

  • Natural and super-natural, temporal and eternal - continuums, not absolutes.


The Shodoka

  • You must neither strive for truth nor seek to lose your illusions.


D. T. Suzuki

  • We have two eyes to see two sides of things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same time and yet not see anything. That is to understand Zen.
  • One falling leaf is not just one leaf; it means the whole autumn.


Shunryu Suzuki

  • As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
  • Zen is not some kind of excitement, but merely concentration on our usual everyday routine.
  • In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
  • The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.
  • Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.


Sayen Shaku

  • My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes.


Sheng-ts'an

  • To set up what you like against what you don't like -- this is the disease of the mind.
  • No yesterday, no tomorrow, and no today.
  • Don't seek reality, just put an end to opinions.

Gertrude Stein

  • When you get there, there isn't any there there.


Ts'ai Ken T'an

  • Water which is too pure has no fish.


Alan Watts

  • Nothing is exactly as it seems, nor is it otherwise.


Jesus Christ

  • Let the dead bury the dead.


Elie Wiesel

  • What does mysticism mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.


Wu-men

  • Ten thousand flowers in spring; the moon in autumn; a cool breeze in summer; snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
  • Since it is all too clear

It takes time to grasp it. When you understand that it's foolish to look for fire with fire, The meal is already cooked.

  • The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.
  • If you're attached to anything, you surely will go far astray.
  • Only the crystal-clear question yields a transparent answer.
  • All of the significant battles are waged within the self.
  • Life is the only thing worth living for.
  • Better to sit all night than to go to bed with a dragon.
  • Live every day like your hair was on fire.
  • When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing.
  • The mind should be as a mirror.
  • There is nothing infinite apart from finite things.
  • Everyday life is the way.
  • Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training.
  • If you do not get it from yourself, Where will you go for it?
  • Do not permit the events of your daily life to bind you, but never withdraw yourself from them.
  • Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening; small doubt, small awakening, no doubt, no awakening.
  • Sitting peacefully doing nothing Spring comes and the grass grows all by itself.
  • Everything the same; everything distinct.
  • Lovely snowflakes, they fall nowhere else!
  • Chop wood, carry water.
  • Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook.
  • A noble heart never forces itself forward. Its words are as rare gems, seldom displayed and of great value.
  • If you meet on the way a man who knows, Don't speak a word -- Don't keep silent!
  • Even a good thing isn't as good as nothing.
  • This is not the Buddha, this is the Buddha.
  • One moon shows in every pool, in every pool the one moon.
  • Studying Zen, learning the way, is originally for the sake of birth and death, no other thing.
  • What do I mean by other things? Arousing the mind and stirring thoughts right now; having contrivance and artificiality; having grasping and rejecting; having practice and realization; having purity and defilement; having sacred and profane; having Buddhas and sentient beings; writing verses and songs, composing poems and odes; discoursing on Zen and the way; discoursing on right and wrong; discoursing on past and present.
  • These various activities are not relevant to the issue of birth and death; they are all "other things."


Chien-ju

  • No ego, no pain.


Freidrich Nietzsche

  • When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

Deletion discussion

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Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This page was nominated for deletion. The result of this discussion was keep. BD2412 T 04:20, 12 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

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