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> 24 quotes tagged "life"
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A small country with few people, content with simple life, will have few desires and few problems.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 80
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A monk asked, 'Does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect?' The master answered, 'No.' For this answer, he was reborn as a fox for five hundred lifetimes.Mumonkan, Case 2
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Kyogen said, 'It is like a man up in a tree hanging from a branch with his mouth. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb. Someone appears beneath the tree and asks, "What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West?" If he does not answer, he fails. If he does answer, he falls and loses his life. What should he do?'Mumonkan, Case 5
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Joshu went to a hermit's cottage and asked, 'Is the master in? Is the master in?' The hermit raised his fist. Joshu said, 'The water is too shallow to anchor here,' and left. He went to another hermit and asked the same question. This hermit also raised his fist. Joshu said, 'Free to give, free to take, free to kill, free to save,' and made a deep bow.Mumonkan, Case 11
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When Tozan came to study with Ummon, Ummon asked, 'Where have you come from?' Tozan said, 'From Sato.' Ummon asked, 'Where were you during the summer?' Tozan replied, 'In the Hoji temple in Konan.' Ummon asked, 'When did you leave there?' Tozan answered, 'August twenty-fifth.' Ummon said, 'I spare you three blows.'Mumonkan, Case 15
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Ananda asked Kashyapa, 'The World-Honored One transmitted to you the robe of gold brocade. What else did he transmit?' Kashyapa said, 'Ananda!' Ananda answered, 'Yes!' Kashyapa said, 'Knock down the flagpole at the gate.'Mumonkan, Case 22
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Oryu said, 'There are three barriers to test students. First, you study Zen to see your nature. Where is your nature right now? Second, if you know your nature, you are free from birth and death. When your eyes close at death, how will you be free? Third, when you are free from birth and death, you know where to go. When your body separates into the four elements, where will you go?'Mumonkan, Case 25
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Joshu went to a hermit and asked, 'What is it? What is it?' The hermit thrust up his fist. Joshu said, 'Ships cannot anchor where the water is too shallow,' and left. He came to another hermit and asked, 'What is it? What is it?' This hermit also thrust up his fist. Joshu said, 'Well given, well taken, well killed, well saved,' and bowed.Mumonkan, Case 31
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Goso asked, 'When you meet a Zen master on the road, you cannot speak to him, you cannot face him in silence. What will you do?'Mumonkan, Case 36
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A monk asked Ummon, 'What is the teaching of a whole lifetime?' Ummon said, 'An appropriate statement.'Mumonkan, Case 39
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Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past.Shobogenzo
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Dongshan said, 'The teaching is like the moon in water. The moon does not get wet; the water is not broken.'Traditional Zen
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It's like a person hanging in a tree by his teeth over a precipice. His hands grasp no branch, his feet rest on no limb. Someone under the tree asks him, 'Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?' If he doesn't answer, he fails. If he does answer, he falls to his death. What should he do?Blue Cliff Record, Case 5
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Xuedou said, 'If you want to attain intimate understanding, just don't develop any concepts. The past is already past. The future has not yet arrived. Here and now—speak!'Traditional Zen
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Things that have been endowed with life die; but that which produces life itself never comes to an end.Lieh Tzu, Book 1: Cosmogony
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That skull and I both know that there is no such thing as absolute life or death.Lieh Tzu, Book 1: Cosmogony
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Human life may last a hundred years, and the whole of it is equally divided into nights and days.Lieh Tzu, Book 3: Dreams
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It is said that he who has a true hold on life, when he walks on land does not meet tigers or wild buffaloes; In battle he is not touched by weapons of war. Indeed, a buffalo that attacked him would find nothing for its horns to butt, a tiger would find nothing for its claws to tear, a weapon would find no place for its point to enter in. And why? Because such a man has no death-spot in him.Tao Te Ching, Chapter 50
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When he is born, man is soft and weak; In death he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees while they are alive are supple and soft, but when dead they become brittle and dry. Truly, what is stiff and hard is a companion of death; What is soft and weak is a companion of life. Therefore the weapon that is too hard will be broken, the tree that has the hardest wood will be cut down. Truly, the hard and mighty are cast down; The soft and weak set on high.Tao Te Ching, Chapter 76
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The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.Alan Watts
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If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you'll spend your life completely wasting your time. You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don't like doing, which is stupid.Alan Watts
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Education, in the real sense, is not preparation for life, it is actually living. It is the child participating in adult concerns. And doing it now and realizing that the point of the process in which the child is engaged, is not to prepare the child for the future, but to enjoy doing the thing today.Alan Watts
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A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. Green plants are tender and filled with sap. At their death they are withered and dry. Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 76
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Because you are alive, everything is possible.Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear