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Mind has no color,
Is neither long nor short,
Doesn’t appear or disappear;
It is free from both purity and impurity;
It was never born and can never die;
It is utterly serene.
This is the form of our
Original mind,
Which is also our original body.

~ Hui-hai (8th c.)

The Way is arrived at by enlightenment.
The first priority is to establish resolve
It is no small matter to step
Directly from the bondage
Of the ordinary person
Into transcendent experience
Of the realm of sages.
It requires that your mind
Be firm as steel
To cut off the flow of
Birth and death,
Accept your original real nature,
Not see anything at all as existing
Inside or outside yourself,
So all actions and endeavors
Emerge from the fundamental.

~ Yuan wu (1063-1135)

He who sincerely seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by that purpose.
As he concentrates on that search a light begins to clear his confusion,
call it revelation, call it inspiration, call it what you will.
It is mistrust that misleads. Sincerity leads straight to the goal.

~ Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

The water within you has journeyed through rivers, clouds, glaciers, and oceans.
You are part rainstorm, part mountain mist, part crashing wave.
No wonder your soul feels everything, you carry the memory of tides, the stillness of snow, and the wild rhythm of storms.
Your body is a sacred vessel of Earth’s ancient flow.

~ Accumulated Wisdom

One instant is eternity;
When you see through this one instant,
You see through the one who sees.

~ Wu-men (1183-1260)

The essential point in learning Zen is to make the roots deep and the stem firm.
Twenty-four hours a day, be aware of where you are and what you do.

When no thoughts have arisen, and nothing at all is on your mind,
you merge with the boundless and become wholly empty and still.
Then your actions are not interrupted by doubt and hesitation.

This is called the fundamental matter right at hand.
As soon as you produce any opinion or interpretation,
and want to attain Zen and be a master,
you have already fallen into psychological and material realms

You have become trapped by ordinary senses and perceptions,
by ideas of gain and loss, by ideas of right and wrong.
Half drunk and half sober, you cannot manage effectively.

~ Yuan wu (1063-1135)

Discipline, as understood by a warrior, is creative, open, and produces freedom.
It is the ability to face the unknown,
transforming the feeling of knowing into reverent astonishment;
of considering things that exceed the scope of our habits,
and daring to face the only war that is worthwhile:

The battle for awareness.


~ Carlos Castaneda

It is all pervading, spotless beauty;
It is the self-existence
And uncreated Absolute
How can it even be a matter
Of discussion that the real Buddha
Has no mouth and preaches no dharma,
Or that real hearing requires no ears,
For who could hear it?
Ah, it is a jewel beyond all price.

~ Huang-po (d. 850)

As soon as you sense any lingering or obstruction,
All of it is false imagining.
Just make your mind clean and free,
Like space, like a mirror,
Like the sun in the sky.

~ Yuan wu (1063-1135)

This matter Zen is like a great mass of fire:
when you approach it your face is sure to be scorched.
It is again like a sword about to be drawn;
when it is once out of the scabbard,
someone is sure to lose his life.

The precious vajra sword is right here and its purpose is to cut off the head.

The body does not know how to discourse or to listen to a discourse.
This which is unmistakably perceivable right where you are,
absolutely identifiable yet without form,
this is what listens to the discourse.

~ Tai-hui (1089-1163)

Until now you seriously considered yourself to be the body and to have a form.
That is the primal ignorance which is the root cause of all trouble.

~ Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)

Seeing into Nothingness
This is the true seeing,
The eternal seeing

~ Shen-hui (8th cent)

Because you grasp labels and slogans,
You are hindered by those labels and slogans,
Both those used in ordinary life and those
Considered sacred.
Thus they obstruct your perception of objective truth,
And you cannot understand clearly.

~ Linji (d. 867)

The Mountains’ Friend

The broad arms of this dusty world
Hold few true friends.

One feels the pangs of loneliness,
and see
How cold the autumn air becomes!
But no, behold your search is ended here,

For countless mountains

Blue afar, and green ones near,

Remain your friends eternally.

~Jakushtsu (1290–1368)

He’s been living outside of convention
For a long time now;
While everyone else
Is so busy striving,
The lone traveler
Is at ease by himself.

In his pouch there is nothing at all.
When he walks,
He takes a cane for a companion;
When he talks,
He has the rocks for an audience.
If you ask him what his religion is,
When hungry it’s a bowl of rice.

~ Wen-siang (1210-1280)