Bodhidharma - Collected Quotes

"A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"All know the way; few actually walk it."(Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"All phenomena are empty." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad."(Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Detach yourself from various things in the external world and inwardly your mind will not be agitated. By using your mind like a wall you should gain entrance into the Way." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Many roads lead to the path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen."(Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Outwardly, the activities of all the senses are brought into repose, and inwardly, your mind is not agitated. Using your mind like a sheer wall, you should enter the Way." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"People who don't see their nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs and fools." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"The mind is the root from which all things grow if you can understand the mind, everything else is included." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Throw away your various ties to the external world of dualities and pacify all things, then your mind and body will be one, and there will be no gap between movement and stillness." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"To enter by reason means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things share the same true nature, which isn't apparent because it's shrouded by sensation and delusion." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

"Whoever realizes that the six senses aren't real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas." (Bodhidharma, cca. 6th century)

Week 2021-18: Masanobu Fukuoka - Collected Quotes

"But intending to understand ten things, you actually do not understand even one. If you know a hundred flowers you do not 'know' a single one." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"Extravagance of desire is the fundamental cause which has led the world into its present predicament. Fast rather than slow, more rather than less - this flashy "development" is linked directly to society's impending collapse." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"Food and medicine are not two different things: they are the front and back of one body." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"Humanity knows nothing at all. There is no intrinsic value in anything, and every action is a futile, meaningless effort." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"I wonder how it is that people's philosophies have come to spin faster than the changing seasons." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"Nature is everywhere in perpetual motion; conditions are never exactly the same in any two years." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"People do sometimes sense the sacredness of nature, such as when they look closely at a flower, climb high peaks, or journey deep into the mountain. Such aesthetic sense, love, receptivity, and understanding are people's most basic instincts - their true nature. These days, however, human are flying in a completely different direction to some unknown destination, and they seem to be doing it as rapidly as possible." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"People think they understand things because they become familiar with them. This is only superficial knowledge." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"We can never know the answers to great spiritual questions, but it's all right not to understand. We have been born and are living on the earth to face directly the reality of living." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"When a decision is made to cope with the symptoms of a problem, it is generally assumed that the corrective measures will solve the problem itself. They seldom do." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

"When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings." (Masanobu Fukuoka, "The One-Straw Revolution", 1975)

Week 2021-17: Murasaki Shikibu - Collected Quotes

"Even those people who have no sorrow of their own often feel melancholy from the circumstances in which they are placed."

"No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly [...] and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it." (Murasaki Shikibu, "The Tale of Genji", cca. 11th century)

"No penance can your hard heart find save such as you long since have taught me to endure [...]" (Murasaki Shikibu, "The Tale of Genji", cca. 11th century)

"Nothing can be well learned that is not agreeable to one’s natural taste." (Murasaki Shikibu, "The Tale of Genji", cca. 11th century)

"Life is full of uncertainties, perhaps one day some unforeseen circumstance would bring her into his life once more." (Murasaki Shikibu, "The Tale of Genji", cca. 11th century)

"It is so rare to find someone of true understanding; for the most part they judge purely by their own standards and ignore everyone else." (Murasaki Shikibu, "The Diary of Lady Murasaki", cca. 11th century)

"Beauty without colour seems somehow to belong to another world." (Murasaki Shikibu)

"It is very easy to criticize others but far more difficult to put one’s own principles into practice, and it is when one forgets this truth, lauds oneself to the skies, treats everyone else as worthless, and generally despises others, that one’s own character is clearly revealed." (Murasaki Shikibu)