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> 62 quotes tagged "present-moment"

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

mind silence perception teaching
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

inquiry paradox present-moment no-self
Buddha held up a flower before the assembly. Everyone was silent. Only Mahakashyapa smiled. Buddha said, 'I have the eye of true teaching, the heart of Nirvana, the true aspect of non-form. I now entrust it to Mahakashyapa.'

Mumonkan, Case 6

buddha-nature silence beyond-words present-moment
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

mind inquiry teaching present-moment
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

inquiry present-moment life zen-koan
A monk asked Tozan, 'What is Buddha?' Tozan said, 'Three pounds of flax.'

Mumonkan, Case 18

buddha-nature everyday-life present-moment zen-koan
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

emptiness mind inquiry everyday-life
The Sixth Patriarch was pursued by monk Myo. The Patriarch asked, 'Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil, at this very moment, what is your original face?'

Mumonkan, Case 23

beyond-thought present-moment no-self zen-koan
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

inquiry seeing beyond-thought present-moment
Ryutan and Tokusan were talking late into the night. Finally Ryutan said, 'It's getting late. Why don't you retire?' Tokusan made his bows and lifted the screen to leave, but saw it was pitch dark outside. He turned and said, 'It's dark out there.' Ryutan lit a candle and handed it to Tokusan. As Tokusan reached for it, Ryutan blew it out. At that moment Tokusan was enlightened.

Mumonkan, Case 28

awakening seeing present-moment zen-koan
Daibai asked Baso, 'What is Buddha?' Baso said, 'This mind is Buddha.'

Mumonkan, Case 30

buddha-nature mind seeing present-moment
A monk asked, 'What is Buddha?' Baso answered, 'No mind, no Buddha.'

Mumonkan, Case 33

buddha-nature mind inquiry present-moment
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

silence paradox teaching beyond-words
A monk asked Ummon, 'What is the teaching of a whole lifetime?' Ummon said, 'An appropriate statement.'

Mumonkan, Case 39

present-moment life zen-koan
Hakuin would say to his students, 'In clapping both hands a sound is heard. What is the sound of one hand?'

Traditional Zen

silence perception present-moment no-self
Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past.

Shobogenzo

present-moment no-self life zen-koan
A monk asked, 'The stone bridge of Zhaozhou is widely renowned, but I find only a shabby log bridge.' Zhaozhou said, 'You see only the shabby log bridge and don't see the stone bridge.' The monk asked, 'What is the stone bridge?' Zhaozhou said, 'It lets donkeys cross, it lets horses cross.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 52

buddha-nature everyday-life seeing present-moment
A monk asked, 'Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?' Zhaozhou said, 'The cypress tree in the courtyard.'

Blue Cliff Record

seeing present-moment no-self direct-experience
Huangbo said, 'You are all gobblers of dregs! Traveling around this way, where do you have today?'

Traditional Zen

seeing present-moment zen-koan
Linji said, 'There is a true person of no rank constantly going in and out through the gates of your face. Those who have not yet proved it, look! Look!'

Linji Yulu

seeing beyond-words present-moment no-self
Yunmen said, 'Everyone has their own light. When you try to see it, everything is darkness. What is your light?'

Traditional Zen

seeing beyond-words present-moment zen-koan
Deshan carried his bowls to the dining room. Xuefeng said, 'The bell hasn't rung and the drum hasn't sounded. Where are you going with your bowls?' Deshan returned to his room.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 4

awakening perception inquiry teaching
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

inquiry paradox present-moment death
Yunmen said, 'I don't ask you about fifteen days ago. But what about fifteen days hence? Come, say a word about this!' Since none of the monks answered, he said, 'Every day is a good day.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 6

emptiness inquiry beyond-words present-moment
A monk asked Baling, 'What is the Blown Hair Sword?' Baling said, 'Each branch of coral holds up the moon.'

Blue Cliff Record, Case 13

everyday-life beyond-words present-moment no-self
A monk asked, 'What is the meaning of meditation and study?' Zhaozhou said, 'In the morning we eat rice gruel, at midday we eat rice.'

Traditional Zen

seeing present-moment direct-experience zen-koan
A monk asked, 'What is Buddha?' Dongshan said, 'Three pounds of hemp.'

Book of Serenity, Case 18

buddha-nature everyday-life present-moment zen-koan
A monk asked Dizang, 'Where can I find the place to enter?' Dizang said, 'Can you hear the sound of the valley stream?' The monk said, 'Yes, I can hear it.' Dizang said, 'Enter there.'

Traditional Zen

perception present-moment no-self direct-experience
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

beyond-words beyond-thought present-moment direct-experience
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

mind teaching present-moment spontaneity
For fame's sake they endure all kinds of bodily hardship and mental pain. Those seeking lasting recognition sacrifice their present well-being for benefits that may only reach future generations.

Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure, Ch. 1

sacrifice legacy present-moment
Striving for one vain hour of glory and providing for the splendour which is to survive their death, men constantly render themselves anxious. The pursuit of legacy and status steals present contentment.

Yang Chu's Garden of Pleasure, Ch. 3

ambition anxiety present-moment
The past is already past. Don't try to regain it. The present does not stay. Don't try to touch it. The future has not come; don't think about it beforehand.

Zen Poem – P'ang Yün (740-808 CE)

present-moment time letting-go mindfulness
Don't make a distinction between work and play. Regard everything that you're doing as play, and don't regard for one minute that you have to be serious about it.

Alan Watts

present-moment simplicity wu-wei practice
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

present-moment time mind consciousness
The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

Alan Watts

present-moment acceptance wisdom receptivity
Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live. There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.

Alan Watts

present-moment time wisdom consciousness
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

present-moment simplicity wisdom life
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

present-moment life wisdom simplicity
Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal, for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever….

Alan Watts

present-moment time consciousness paradox
Only those who have cultivated the art of living completely in the present have any use for making plans for the future, for when the plans mature they will be able to enjoy the results.

Alan Watts

present-moment practice wisdom paradox
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

present-moment time mind consciousness
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

mind time consciousness present-moment
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

present-moment practice wisdom simplicity
Paradoxical as it may seem, the purposeful life has no content, no point. It hurries on and on, and misses everything. Not hurrying, the purposeless life misses nothing, for it is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.

Alan Watts

present-moment wu-wei paradox wisdom
Peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

Alan Watts

peace love wisdom present-moment
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

Zen proverb

flow naturalness zen-koan practice
The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

present-moment mindfulness awareness thich-nhat-hanh
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

present-moment practice mindfulness thich-nhat-hanh
People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness

present-moment mindfulness thich-nhat-hanh practice
Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

Thich Nhat Hanh

present-moment practice mindfulness thich-nhat-hanh
Because you are alive, everything is possible.

Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

life thich-nhat-hanh present-moment wonder
Life is available only in the present moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

present-moment mindfulness thich-nhat-hanh awareness
Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment Wonderful Moment

practice present-moment thich-nhat-hanh compassion
The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

acceptance suffering thich-nhat-hanh present-moment
Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

peace present-moment thich-nhat-hanh mindfulness
Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

present-moment shunryu-suzuki mindfulness awareness
Our way is to practice one step at a time, one breath at a time, with no gaining idea.

Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

practice shunryu-suzuki present-moment non-attachment
Sitting alone beside a cliff, The full moon a lantern before me. Not a thought about the universe: This quiet illuminates everything.

Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems

stillness nature han-shan silence
Every day is a good day.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 — Yunmen's Every Day Is a Good Day

zen-koan present-moment acceptance blue-cliff-record
Before the donkey has left, the horse has already arrived.

Blue Cliff Record, Case 97

zen-koan blue-cliff-record time present-moment
When you are hungry, eat. When you are tired, sleep.

Book of Serenity — Baizhang

zen-koan book-of-serenity simplicity practice