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> 34 quotes tagged "stillness"
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Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 16
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He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm; He who stretches himself does not attain.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 26
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Gather strength through patient accumulation. Like a reservoir filling, power builds through stillness. Hold firm until the time for action arrives.I Ching, Hexagram 26: Great Restraint / Accumulation
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When darkness prevails, hide your light but do not extinguish it. Outer yielding protects inner truth. Persevere quietly through hard times.I Ching, Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light / Adversity
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The mountain stands immovable. Know when to be still and when to move. In stillness, find clarity; in meditation, find center.I Ching, Hexagram 52: Keeping Still / Mountain
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The pure men of old passed their waking existence in self-oblivion, and slept without dreams.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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The ten directions converging, each learning to do nothing.Zen Poem – P'ang Yün (740-808 CE)
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I stroll along the stream up to where it ends, then sit and watch the time when clouds rise up.Zen Poem – Wang Wei (699-761)
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Burning incense, I pass my days in serenity. When the incense is exhausted, I forget all things.Zen Poem – Shou-an
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When thoughts are quieted down, fire itself is cool.Zen Poem – Tu Kou-hao
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When the wind is still, the water is calm. The moon reflects perfectly in the lake.Zen Poem – Yung-ming Yen-shou (904-975)
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Although the wind blows, the mountain does not move. Although the wave rises, the moon is not disturbed.Zen Poem – Ikkyū Sōjun (1394-1481)
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Tao never does; Yet through it all things are done. If the barons and kings would but possess themselves of it, the ten thousand creatures would at once be transformed. The blankness of the Unnamed brings dispassion; To be dispassionate is to be still. And so, of itself, the whole empire will be at rest.Tao Te Ching, Chapter 37
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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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Great perfection seems incomplete; yet its use is not impaired. Great fullness seems empty; yet its use is inexhaustible. Great straightness seems crooked. Great skill seems clumsy. Great eloquence seems silent.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 45
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The Tao is empty but inexhaustible — the ancestor of all things. Blunt the sharpness, untie the knots, soften the glare, settle the dust. Deep and still, it seems to have existed forever. I do not know whose child it is; it is older than the concept of God.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 4
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Attain complete emptiness. Hold firm to stillness. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising I see their return. They flourish and each returns to its root. Returning to one's roots is known as stillness. Stillness is the return to one's destiny.Tao Te Ching – Chapter 16
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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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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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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
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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
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Smile, breathe, and go slowly.Thich Nhat Hanh
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Men ask the way to Cold Mountain. Cold Mountain: there's no through trail. In summer, ice doesn't melt. The rising sun blurs in swirling fog. How did I make it? My heart's not the same as yours. If your heart was like mine You'd get it and be right here.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems, tr. Gary Snyder
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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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In my first thirty years of life I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles. Walked by rivers through deep green grass, Entered cities of boiling red dust. Tried drugs, but couldn't make Immortal. Read books and wrote poems on history. Today I'm back at Cold Mountain. I'll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems, tr. Gary Snyder
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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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Today I sat before the cliff, Sat a long time till mist and clouds arose. Mist and clouds — a moment of affairs. This old man — what have they to do with me?Han Shan, Cold Mountain Poems
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Not knowing is most intimate.Book of Serenity, Case 20 — Dizang's Intimacy
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Our original nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy — and that is all.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld
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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
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When the ten thousand things are viewed in their oneness, we return to the origin and remain where we have always been.Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, tr. John Blofeld