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> 70 quotes tagged "mind"
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Let go of the years. Forget artificial distinctions. Leap into the boundless realm and make it your home.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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The supreme person uses their mind like a mirror. It neither anticipates nor pursues. It responds but doesn't store.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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Flow with whatever happens and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you're doing.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 6: The Great Teacher
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When water is still, it reflects everything clearly. If water derives clarity from stillness, how much more so the human mind?Chuang Tzu, Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete
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Don't let your mind be a servant of things. Use things, but don't be used by them.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4: In the World of Men
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When you wear out your mind trying to make things one, without realizing they already share a common nature, it's called using three in the morning.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2: The Equality of Things
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The man of true understanding wanders freely in the world and his mind cannot be led astray.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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When deformity of body doesn't cause deformity of mind, then you have virtue.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete
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The mind of the perfect person is like a mirror. It doesn't lead and doesn't follow. It responds but doesn't retain.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors and Kings
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In stillness, the wise person's mind is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of everything.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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Happiness is a light body and a peaceful mind. Sadness is a heavy body and an agitated mind.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 18: Perfect Happiness
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When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the mind is right, both approval and disapproval are forgotten.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 19: Mastering Life
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When the student is ready, the Way appears. When the mind is still, understanding comes by itself.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven
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The master of Kennin temple was Mokurai, Silent Thunder. He had a little protege named Toyo who was only twelve years old. Mokurai said, 'You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together. Now show me the sound of one hand.'Traditional Zen
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Every day Zuigan would call to himself, 'Master!' and answer, 'Yes!' Then he would say, 'Be wide awake!' and answer, 'Yes! Yes!' 'Do not be deceived by others!' 'No! No!'Mumonkan, Case 12
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Monks of the eastern and western halls were disputing about a cat. Nansen held up the cat and said, 'If you can say a word of Zen, I will spare the cat. If not, I will cut it in two.' No one could answer. Nansen cut the cat. That evening Joshu returned. Nansen told him what had happened. Joshu took off his sandals, put them on his head, and walked out. Nansen said, 'If you had been there, the cat would have been saved.'Mumonkan, Case 14
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Joshu asked Nansen, 'What is the Way?' Nansen answered, 'Everyday mind is the Way.' Joshu asked, 'Should I try to direct myself toward it?' Nansen said, 'If you try, you miss it.' Joshu asked, 'If I don't try, how can I know it is the Way?' Nansen replied, 'The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion, not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine Way, you will find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation?'Mumonkan, Case 19
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A monk asked Nansen, 'Is there any teaching that has not been taught to people?' Nansen said, 'There is.' The monk asked, 'What is the teaching that has not been taught?' Nansen said, 'It is not mind, it is not Buddha, it is not things.'Mumonkan, Case 27
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Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said, 'The flag is moving.' The other said, 'The wind is moving.' The Sixth Patriarch said, 'Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving.'Mumonkan, Case 29
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Daibai asked Baso, 'What is Buddha?' Baso said, 'This mind is Buddha.'Mumonkan, Case 30
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A monk asked, 'What is Buddha?' Baso answered, 'No mind, no Buddha.'Mumonkan, Case 33
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Nansen said, 'Mind is not Buddha. Learning is not the Way.'Mumonkan, Case 34
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Eka said to Bodhidharma, 'My mind is not at peace. Please pacify my mind.' Bodhidharma said, 'Bring me your mind and I will pacify it.' Eka said, 'I have searched for my mind, but I cannot find it.' Bodhidharma said, 'There, I have pacified your mind.'Traditional Zen
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Bankei said, 'If you try to stop your thoughts they will only multiply. Better to let them arise and pass away in the Unborn Mind.'Traditional Zen
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A monk asked Mazu, 'What kind of person is one who does not keep company with the ten thousand things?' Mazu said, 'When you swallow all the water of the West River in one gulp, I'll tell you.'Traditional Zen
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Master Rujing said, 'Zazen is the Dharma gate of great ease and joy. It is the practice-realization of dropping off body and mind.'Traditional Soto Zen
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The superior person settles her mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky. By connecting her mind with the subtle origin, she calms it. Once calmed, it naturally expands.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 5
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The Tao gives rise to all forms, yet it has no form of its own. If you attempt to fix a picture of it in your mind, you will lose it. Why not be content with simply experiencing it?Hua Hu Jing, Verse 6
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There is nothing to teach: no religion, no science, no body of information which will lead your mind back to the Tao. Simply be aware of the oneness of things.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 8
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Keep your mind free of divisions and distinctions. When your mind is detached, simple, quiet, then all things can exist in harmony, and you can begin to perceive the subtle truth.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 11
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The mind is like a knife, always chipping away at the Tao, trying to render it graspable and manageable. She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her fingertips.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 13
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The mind is desperate to fix the river in place. The one who can dissolve her mind will suddenly discover the Tao at her feet, and clarity at hand.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 21
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The Tao is always present and always available. When speech is exhausted and mind dissolved, it presents itself. If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 22
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Integral wisdom involves a direct participation in every moment: the observer and the observed are dissolved in the light of pure awareness, and no mental concepts or attitudes are present to dim that light.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 26
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The only way to understand the Tao is to directly experience it. When you get there, quiet your mind and close your mouth. Don't analyze the Tao. Strive instead to live it: silently, undividedly, with your whole harmonious being.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 30
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Worlds and particles, bodies and beings, time and space: All are transient expressions of the Tao. If you can let go of it with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 33
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The superior person recognizes that he and the subtle law are one. Therefore he cultivates himself to accord with it, bringing moderation to his actions and clarity to his mind.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 40
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The integral being knows that the manipulations of the mind are dreams, delusions, and shadows. Seek instead to keep your mind undivided. Dissolve all ideas into the Tao.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 41
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Join your body, mind, and spirit in all you do. Choose food, clothing, and shelter that accords with nature. Understand that true growth comes from meeting and solving the problems of life in a way that is harmonizing.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 43
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Relinquish the notion that you are separated from the all-knowing mind of the universe. Then you can recover your original pure insight and see through all illusions.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 44
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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place. The Integral Way depends on decreasing, not increasing. Stop thinking and clinging to complications; keep your mind detached and whole.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 45
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The holistic practices of the ancient masters integrate science, art, and personal spiritual development. Mind, body, and spirit participate in them equally.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 55
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Unless the mind, body, and spirit are equally developed and fully integrated, no spiritual peak or state of enlightenment can be sustained. True self-cultivation involves the holistic integration of mind, body, and spirit.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 58
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Only when you achieve mastery of the physical energy, universal mindedness, and spiritual insight, and express them in a virtuous integral life, can you attain pure Tao.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 62
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Simplify the personality, refine the sexual energy upward, integrate yin and yang in body, mind, and spirit, practice non-impulsiveness, and you will enter the exquisite upper realm.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 63
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If you consult the I Ching with an open mind, you will begin to see the patterns underlying all things. When you accurately perceive the fluidity of things, you also begin to perceive the constancy behind them.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 64
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If you wish to unite with the heart and mind of the Mysterious Mother, you must integrate yin and yang within and refine their fire upward. This is what is known as true evolution.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 65
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Develop your virtue and extend it to the world. Practice unswerving kindness and unending patience. Avoid following impulses and pursuing ambitions which destroy the wholeness of your mind.Hua Hu Jing, Verse 72
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After three years, my mind did not venture to reflect on right and wrong.Lieh Tzu, Book 2: The Yellow Emperor
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A dream is something that comes into contact with the mind; an external event is something that impinges on the body.Lieh Tzu, Book 3: Dreams
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If we can concentrate the mind in abstraction, our feelings and our dreams will vanish of themselves.Lieh Tzu, Book 3: Dreams
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When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace.Zen Poem – P'ang Yün (Layman P'ang) (740-808 CE)
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When thoughts are quieted down, fire itself is cool.Zen Poem – Tu Kou-hao
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We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is.Alan Watts
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We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.Alan Watts
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The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money… they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.Alan Watts
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The future is a concept, it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be because time is always now. That's one of the things we discover when we stop talking to ourselves and stop thinking. We find there is only present, only an eternal now.Alan Watts
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Memory creates the future as well as the past, you wouldn't know that you were going to have anything happen tomorrow if you didn't have something yesterday.Alan Watts
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If you listen not with the ear but with the heart; not with the heart but with the breath — then the breath itself is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the heart.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 4 – The Human World
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If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
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Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.Shunryu Suzuki
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My mind is like the autumn moon Shining clean and clear in the green pool. No, that's not a good comparison. Tell me, how shall I explain?Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
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Three pounds of flax.Blue Cliff Record, Case 12 — Tung-shan's Three Pounds of Flax
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Not the wind, not the flag. It is your mind that moves.Blue Cliff Record, Case 29 — The Sixth Patriarch and the Wind and Flag
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The foolish reject what they see, not what they think. The wise reject what they think, not what they see.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld
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All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld
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To use the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not to use the mind to look for reality is awareness.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld
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If you students of the Way do not awake to this Mind substance, you will overlay Mind with conceptual thought, you will seek Buddha outside yourselves, and you will remain attached to forms, practices, and so on, all of which are harmful and not at all the way to supreme knowledge.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld
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The foolish man seeks for truth abroad, while the wise man knows that it is within himself.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld