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> 23 quotes tagged "silence"
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Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 56
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Act without striving; work without doing; taste without savoring.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 63
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Those who know don't speak. Those who speak don't know.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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The ten thousand things all arise from a single source and return to different destinations. Yet beginning and end are connected.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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The path that can be walked is not the eternal path. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.Chuang Tzu, Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North
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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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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
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A monk asked Fuketsu, 'Both speech and silence are about essence and manifestation. How can we transcend both?' Fuketsu said, 'I always remember the spring in Konan, where the partridges sing. How fragrant the countless flowers!'Mumonkan, Case 24
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A non-Buddhist asked the Buddha, 'I do not ask for words, I do not ask for non-words.' The Buddha remained silent. The non-Buddhist said, 'The World-Honored One's great mercy has cleared away my delusions and enabled me to enter the path,' and he left. Ananda asked the Buddha, 'What did he realize?' The Buddha said, 'A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip.'Mumonkan, Case 32
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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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Hakuin would say to his students, 'In clapping both hands a sound is heard. What is the sound of one hand?'Traditional Zen
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He who has reached the stage of thought is silent...He who uses silence in lieu of speech really does speak...there is nothing that he does not know.Lieh Tzu, Book 4: Confucius
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To be always talking is against nature. For the same reason a hurricane never lasts a whole morning, nor a rainstorm all day. Who is it that makes the wind and rain? It is Heaven-and Earth. And if even Heaven-and Earth cannot blow or pour for long, how much less in his utterance should man?Tao Te Ching, Chapter 23
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The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustibly generative. The more it moves, the more comes out. Better to hold to the centre than to talk too much and too often lose the thread.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 5
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The old pond — a frog jumps in — sound of water.Matsuo Basho (1686)
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Such silence — the voice of cicadas seeps into the rocks.Matsuo Basho
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Ma is not simply empty space. It is space made present, charged with potential. In Japanese art, what is left out carries as much meaning as what is included. The gap between notes is not a rest — it is where the music breathes.Ma (間) – Japanese Aesthetic Principle
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The flower of Noh is found not in what is shown but in what is withheld. The actor who reveals everything leaves nothing for the audience to complete. The art lives in the space between performance and imagination.Zeami Motokiyo – Fushikaden (The Transmission of the Flower), c. 1400
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In the tea room, nothing is placed without purpose and no surface filled beyond necessity. The empty wall is not bare — it is open. The silence between host and guest is not awkward — it is the ceremony itself.Sen no Rikyu – Principles of Wabi-cha, 16th century
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The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step
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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
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Spring water in the green creek is clear, Moonlight on Cold Mountain is white. Silent knowledge — the spirit is enlightened of itself. Contemplate the void: this world exceeds stillness.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
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The void is not really void, but the realm of the real Dharma. This spiritually illuminating silence is without beginning or end.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld