Week 2023-52: Ekai [Mumon Wumen Huikai] - Collected Quotes

"Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin. Summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word “mu.” In order to do so, hold to the problem from morning to night without letting it go even for one second, and become one with the word “mu” (void) with all your strength." (Ekai)

"Awaken your three hundred and sixty bones and eighty-four thousand pores into one great body of inquiry and concentrate yourself into this mu (void)." (Ekai)

"Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked." (Ekai, "The Gateless Gate", cca. 13the century)

"If anyone thinks that the one’s insight exceeds the other’s, he has no eyes." (Ekai, "The Gateless Gate", cca. 13the century)

"If you want to study Zen, you must study it with your heart." (Ekai, "The Gateless Gate", cca. 13the century)

"Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu, and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating the whole universe." (Ekai, "The Gateless Gate", cca. 13the century)

"[Nansen:] The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?" (Mumon Ekai, Mumonkan)

"Repeat mu (void) with all the spiritual power you possess." (Ekai)

"Zen has no gates. The purpose of Buddha’s words is to enlighten others. Therefore Zen should be gateless." (Ekai, "The Gateless Gate", cca. 13the century)

Week 2023-51: Kekuan [Niwa Jurozaemon Tadaaki] - Collected Quotes

"But if your thoughts intrude, even a little, you have intention, and your body will not move naturally. Therefore the opponent’s mind will not give in to you but continuously oppose you." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"[…] first, you should concentrate on the principle of life and death, with an unbending will, without doubt or hesitation, using neither cleverness nor calculation; if you can keep your mind calm, dignified and free in its normal state, you can respond without constraint even to constantly changing conditions." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"It is easy to teach, and easy to hear the words we are taught, but difficult to find it within ourselves and make it our own. This is called ‘self-realization’. ‘Enlightenment’ is waking up to see the dream for what it is. Self-realization is the same. There is no difference." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"Outer forms are taught to indicate the direction we should follow, so though they do, in fact, contain the truth - but if you specialize in them, jumping from one to another and devising new variations, you will lack the essence of the skills of the old masters. Using your own cleverness, you’ll end up as a collector of techniques and your skill will amount to nothing." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"Swordsman-ship is not something you persevere in just to achieve victory over others. It is also an art through which you can face troubles and clarify issues of life and death. This is an attitude that samurai must always strive to maintain, and so you should master this art." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"Whatever has form, has opposition, but if your mind has no form, it can have no opposition. When there is no opposition, there is no opponent." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

"You have to consider things yourselves. This is the way things are passed down from the masters: they can teach theory only. You are the ones who have to get the truth from it. [….] You must educate yourself. Teaching is just pointing out what you cannot see without help. You are not ‘given’ anything by the teacher." (Issai Chozan, "The Mysterious Skills of the Old Cat" ["Neko No Myoujutsu"], 1727)

Week 2023-50: Gyalwa Karmapa - Collected Quotes

"Contentment is a wealth that gives the highest satisfaction, and we can gain it simply by mining our own mental resources, and knowing our own mind. We can cultivate the perspective that what we have is enough. We can see that we do not actually need more than we already have, and can be completely satisfied with that." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"If in our minds we are joyful and peaceful, then this will show in the way we use our bodies and speech." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"In order to meditate, it is very important to first identify what we are meditating on. If we meditate without identifying that, there is the danger it will become idiot meditation or idiot Dharma. If we do not first fully comprehend through listening and contemplating the meaning of what we are meditating on, how can we practice?" (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"Much of our work is based on the use of our brains, by which I mean our intelligence. But compassion is something that arises or is present at a much deeper level of the mind, very much just as the roots of a tree - unlike its branches - are present within and beneath the ground." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"One of the attributes of Buddhahood is that the way things appear and the way things are, or their true nature, are no longer different or distinct from one another." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"Our existence is always based on and dependent on our relationship to and the existence of others." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"The main purpose of dharma practice is to transform your mind." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"The past is over - it’s already done. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. So the only time that we have is now." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"To secure our own happiness and causes of happiness, we must first act to create wholesome causes of happiness. We must create virtue. We must engage in good conduct. We must generate wholesome attitudes. These are important." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"We mistakenly believe that our welfare, our wellbeing, is utterly independent from the well-being of others. Based on that, we have decided my welfare alone is important and the welfare of others is unimportant." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"We must ask the question, 'What is actually going to do us good? What can we do that will actually be of benefit to ourselves?' Certainly, it is obvious that to callously and selfishly ignore the welfare of others and attempt to achieve our own well-being does not really help us. In fact, it harms us." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"We need to concern ourselves with the wellbeing of all beings that surround us and of all living things because we depend upon them and we cannot really separate our welfare from theirs." (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"When, because of external or internal circumstances there comes some sort of a change, we need to be able to go along with that change. So whatever happens, we go with the flow of events. If we are able to do this, then in our own mind we can be more relaxed. We can be more expansive. When we go along with that we can be comfortable, relaxed and spacious in our minds. If we are able to do this then we are able to be happy, and to have a comfortable and content life."  (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"When I have difficulties, I feel like sometimes it's good to just close the door, relax a little bit, let my mind be a little bit looser and more spacious. I feel that this is helpful, and this is probably something that will be helpful for you as well."  (Gyalwa Karmapa)

"Without those things that produce the air that we breathe, there would be no air for us to breathe. In that way, we always depend on others and everything around us and therefore our well-being depends upon their wellbeing as well." Gyalwa Karmapa

Week 2023-49: Pierre T de Chardin - Collected Quotes

"Religion and science are the two conjugated faces of phases of one and the same act of complete knowledge - the only one which can embrace the past and future of evolution so as to contemplate, measure and fulfill them." (Pierre T de Chardin, "The Phenomenon of Man", 1955)

"Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole." (Pierre T de Chardin, "The Phenomenon of Man", 1955)

"The time has come to realise that an interpretation of the universe - even a positive one - remains unsatisfying unless it covers the interior as well as the exterior of things; mind as well as matter. The true physics is that which will, one day, achieve the inclusion of man in his wholeness in a coherent picture of the world." (Pierre T de Chardin, "The Phenomenon of Man", 1955)

"The world can no more have two summits than a circumference can have two centres." (Pierre T de Chardin, "The Divine Milieu", 1960)

"All that really matters is devotion to something bigger than ourselves." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"Driven by the force of love, the fragments of the world seek each other that the world may come into being." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"Historically, the stuff of the universe goes on becoming concentrated into ever more organized forms of matter." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"Life does not work by following a single thread, nor yet by fits and starts. It pushes forward its whole network at one and the same time." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, humankind will have discovered fire." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"To discover and know has always been a deep tendency of our nature." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"To our critical eyes, the threads of which the past is woven are, by nature, endless and indivisible. Scientifically speaking, we cannot grasp the absolute beginning of anything: everything extends backwards to be prolonged by something else." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"What is imponderable in the world is greater than what we can handle." (Pierre T de Chardin)

"We are not humans having a spiritual experience. Instead, we are spirits having a human experience." (Pierre T de Chardin)

Week 2023-48: Publilius Syrus - Collected Quotes

"A thing is worth whatever the buyer will pay for it." (Publilius Syrus)

"A wise man never refuses anything to necessity." (Publilius Syrus)

"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm." (Publilius Syrus)

"Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear." (Publilius Syrus)

"Avarice is as destitute of what it has as poverty is of what it has not." (Publilius Syrus)

"Each day should be passed as though it were our last." (Publilius Syrus)

"Friendship neither finds nor makes equals." (Publilius Syrus)

"From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own." (Publilius Syrus)

"He gives twice who gives promptly." (Publilius Syrus)

"He is much to be dreaded who stands in dread of poverty." (Publilius Syrus)

"He who is shipwrecked twice is foolish to blame the sea." (Publilius Syrus)

"He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others." (Publilius Syrus)

"How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself." (Publilius Syrus)

"If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest." (Publilius Syrus)

"It is a bad plan that admits of no modification." (Publilius Syrus)

"It is more easy to get a favor from fortune than to keep it." (Publilius Syrus)

"It's a bad plan that can't be changed." (Publilius Syrus)

"Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid." (Publilius Syrus)

"No man is happy unless he believes he is." (Publilius Syrus)

"No one knows what he can do until he tries." (Publilius Syrus)

"No one reaches a high position without daring." (Publilius Syrus)

"Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them." (Publilius Syrus)

"Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so he is." " (Publilius Syrus)

"The opportunity is often lost by deliberating." (Publilius Syrus)

"To do two things at once is to do neither." (Publilius Syrus)

"Unless you bear with the faults of a friend you betray your own." (Publilius Syrus)

"We die as often as we lose a friend." (Publilius Syrus)

"We may with advantage at times forget what we know." (Publilius Syrus)

"We must master our good fortune, or it will master us." (Publilius Syrus)

"What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope." (Publilius Syrus)

"When you are at sea, keep clear of the land." (Publilius Syrus)