by Zen is a Buddhist school that emerged in India and developed in China, which aims to become aware.
In the West, this philosophy is intimately related to mental and body well-being and meditation and, in recent years, has become very popular. It helps to escape the accelerated pace of life in which we live in Western societies, fostering self-knowledge and relaxation and helping people “to be in the here and now” –
Do you want to get the best Zen quotes to meditate?
Often there comes a time when you can no longer deal with your problems, when you can no longer see your way clearly and when you no longer know how to handle so much confusion, that is called “life”. However, these difficult times only come to teach us important lessons that we must learn in order to evolve.
Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to deal with such problems. This is why you go to Zen to try to get all the answers. Zen is a form of Buddhism that emphasizes meditation to achieve peace of mind. Zen teachers say that it is more a way of living than a religion and that everyone can practice it regardless of their religion.
“Nothing disappears until he has shown us what we need to know.”
Pema Chödrön
It is believed that practicing Zen has a calming effect on the mind and body, which not only helps one to lead a healthy life, but also to deal with several problems efficiently. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear,” says Zen. Then, if you are ready to learn, here you will find some teachings that will inspire you and motivate you to lead a peaceful life.
Here I leave you a compilation of the best Zen quotes to meditate pronounced by great people like Osho, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Lao-Tzu, Shunryu Suzuki, the Dalai Lama and many more. Enjoy them!
Zen Quotes and Proverbs to Meditate:
1. “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.”
Dalai Lama
2.”We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains.”
Li Bai
3.”The flower falls, although we love it; and the weed grows, although we do not love it. ”
Dōgen Zenji
4.”You can never find what has never been lost.”
Zen Proverb
5.”In fact, the truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means living, moving, acting, not simply reflecting.”
Daisetsu Suzuki
6.”Those who are awake, live in a state of constant amazement.”
Buddha
7.”Zen is the liberation of time. So that when we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this moment, and that the past and the future are abstractions without a concrete reality. ”
Alan Wilson Watts
8.”The real miracle is not walking on water or walking in the air, but simply walking on this earth.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
9.”The worst aggression to ourselves, the worst of all, is to remain ignorant because we do not have the courage and respect to treat ourselves with honesty and tenderness.”
Pema Chödrön
10.”If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. ”
Lao-Tse
11.”Life is like getting on a ship that is about to set sail and sink into the ocean.”
Shunryu Suzuki
12.”Do not chase, look for us, do not ask, do not hit, do not demand, relax.”
Osho
13.”Old friends are leaving, new friends appear. It’s like the days. An old day goes away, and a new day arrives. The important thing is that it has meaning: that it be a friend with meaning and a day with meaning. ”
Dalai Lama
14.”Everything we are is the result of what we think, The mind is everything. What we think is what we become.”
Buddha
15.”The meaning of the spiritual life is to realize the truth. But you will never understand the spiritual life, or the truth, if you measure it with your own criteria. ”
Dainin Katagiri
16.”Be master of the mind instead of being dominated by the mind.”
Zen Proverb
17.”Better a word that serene the listener than a thousand absurd verses.”
Buddha
18.”When I let go of what I am, I become what it could be.”
Lao-Tse
19.”How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. ”
Wayne Dyer
20.”Respect life, venerate life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life. ”
Osho
21.”When you look for it, you can not find it.”
Zen Proverb
22.”For a mind that is quiet, the whole universe surrenders.”
Lao-Tse
23.”The strong will overcome an obstacle; the wise, all the way. ”
Zen Proverb
24.”The things that I charge are my thoughts. They are my only weight. My thoughts determine whether I am free and light or heavy and burdened. ”
Kamal Ravikant
25.”Every morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. ”
Buddha
26.”The best trick of the mind is the illusion that it exists.”
Marty Rubin
27.”The glass is not half full or half empty. The glass is simply a glass and its contents are perpetually changing with your perception. ”
Jennifer Sodini
28.”Move and the path will open.”
Zen Proverb
29.”The answer is never” out there. ” All the answers are “in there”, inside you, wanting to be discovered. ”
Chris Prentiss
30.”The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
Dalai Lama
31.”Stress is an ignorant state. With the belief that everything is an emergency. Nothing is so important. ”
Natalie Goldberg
32.”What determines the state of happiness or unhappiness of each person is not the event itself, but what the event means to that person.”
Chris Prentiss
33.”If you realize you have enough, then you are truly rich.”
Lao-Tse
34.”When we encounter a real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways: either lose hope and fall into self-destructive habits, or use the challenge to find our inner strength.”
Dalai Lama
35.”When the disciple is ready, the teacher appears.”
Zen Proverb
36.”To live a purely altruistic life, one should not count anything as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”
Buddha
37.”Be patient. Wait until the mud settles and the water clears. Remain still until the correct action arises by itself. ”
Lao Tse
38.”Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ”
Dalai Lama
39.”Even death should not be feared by someone who has lived wisely.”
Buddha
40.”When you keep thinking that everything is the fault of another person, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy. ”
Dalai Lama
41.”Let it go or be dragged.”
Zen Proverb
42.”When something comes from within, when it is a part of you, you have no choice but to live it, to express it.” Kamal Ravikant
43.”Nature never hurries, however everything takes place.”
Lao-Tse
44.”The most important point is to accept yourself and stay on your two feet.”
Shunryu Suzuki
45.”It’s easy to believe that we are waves and forget that we are also the ocean.”
Jon J. Muth
46.”To have an open mind to everything and attached to nothing”
Tilopa
47.”If you’re going to walk, walk. If you’re going to eat, eat. Live simple Make your life a ritual. ”
Zen Proverb
48.”The dew as life vanishes; Time accelerates quickly. In this short life of ours, avoid getting involved in superfluous things and simply study the Way. ”
Dōgen Zenji
49.”Act without expectations.”
Lao Tse
50.”Practice is this life, and realization is this life and this life is revealed here and now.”
Maezumi Roshi
51.”The fundamental deception of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.”
Yasutani Roshi
52.”Life begins where fear ends.”
Osho
53.”Our pains and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.”
Buddha
54.”Love is the absence of judgment.”
Dalai Lama
55.”It flows with whatever happens and leaves your mind free. Accept what you are doing. ”
Chuang-Tzu
56.”If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and love ourselves, we can not take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the basis for loving another person. ”
Thich Nhat Hanh
57.”A drop of dew on the grass reflects the full moon and the sky in its entirety.”
Dōgen Zenji
58.”Being beautiful means being yourself. You do not need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself. ”
Thich Nhat Hanh
59.”A mountain does not surrender to the wind, no matter how strong it is.”
Zen Proverb
60.”Choose to be defeated in the presence of the wise who excel among fools.”
Dōgen Zenji
61.”In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; but in the expert’s there are few. ”
Shunryu Suzuki
62.”Searching is suffering. Not looking for anything is bliss. ”
Bodhidharma
63.”The man who moves mountains starts moving small stones.”
Confucius
64.”We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. ”
Shunryu Suzuki
65.”In a clear mind like pure water, even the waves when they break, reflect their light.”
Dōgen Zenji
66.”To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
Buddha
67.”Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.”
Zen Proverb
68.”To receive everything, one must open one’s hands and give.”
Taisen Deshimaru
69.”Do not follow the idea of others, but learn to listen to the voice within you.”
Dōgen Zenji
70.”Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
71.”This is the true secret of life: to be completely committed to what you do in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize that it is a game. ”
Zen Proverb
72.”When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without becoming entangled in it.”
Eckhart Tolle
73.”If you miss the present moment, you miss your date with life. That’s very serious! ”
Thich Nhat Hanh
74.”If you want to change the world, start with the next person who comes to you with a need.”
BD Schiers
75.”My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now.”
Byron Katie
76.”Just as a candle does not shine without fire, man can not exist without a spiritual life.”
Buddha
77.”Guilt, regret , resentment, sadness, bitterness, frustration and all the ways of not being able to forgive are generated by living too much in the past and not enough in the present.”
Eckhart Tolle
78.”Throughout this life, you can never be sure of living long enough to take another breath.”
Huang Po
79.”When you do something, you burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, without leaving a trace of yourself.”
Shunryu Suzuki
80.”Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the Earth spins world -. Slowly, evenly, unhurriedly into the future. ”
Thich Nhat Hanh
81.”The preparation of food is not only about yourself and others. It’s about everything! ”
Shunryu Suzuki
82.”Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and they are nothing in themselves.” ”
Nagarjuna
83.”Nothing exists completely alone. Everything is related to everything else. ”
Buddha
84.”The sky, the earth and I are of the same root, the ten thousand things and I am of one substance.”
Seng-chao
85.”We are here to awaken from our illusion of separation.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
86.”The practice of Zen is to forget the self in the act of uniting with something.”
Koun Yamada
87.”To study the Buddha’s path is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by the myriad of things. ”
Dōgen Zenji
88.”Melting our attachment to oneself is the most powerful medication for controlling mental and emotional imbalances.”
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
89.”Have great confidence in yourself, not from what you think you should be, but from what you are.”
Taizan Maezumi Roshi
90.”Accepting an idea as true without experiencing it is like painting a cake on a piece of paper and you will not be able to eat.”
Suzuki Roshi
91.”Trying to define yourself is like biting your own teeth”
Alan Watts
92.”Today you can decide to walk freely. You can decide to walk differently. You can walk like a free person, enjoying every step. ”
Thich Nhat Hanh
93.”When an ordinary man obtains knowledge he is a wise man; When a sage gets understanding he is an ordinary man. ”
Zen Proverb
94.”If we do not take care of everything, then the peaceful mind will have nowhere to stay.”
Shenhui
95.”Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. The true power is within, and is available to you now. ”
Eckhart Tolle
96.”Only when you are extremely flexible and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.”
Zen Proverb
97.”All up to you. You can go to sleep forever or you can wake up right now. ”
Osho
98.”When the mind is perfectly clear, which is what we want.”
Byron Katie
99.”To follow the path, look to the teacher, follow the teacher, walk with the teacher, look through the teacher, become the teacher.”
Zen Proverb
100.”You are a function of what the entire universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.”
Alan Watts
Which of these Zen Quote is your favorite?
Attitude and mentality guide our hearts and drive the quality of life we live. Therefore, these “simple” but “revealing” messages are useful tools to reach a calm, insightful and introspective mental state.
The basic principles of Zen teachings are to relax and be at peace with oneself. As Osho said: “Zen is not effort. The effort is tension, the effort is work, the effort is to achieve something. Zen is not something to achieve. You are already that. Just relax, relax so deeply that you become a revelation to yourself. ”
Do you have any other quotes to add to the list? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below.
