Zen Collection

All the information for this page is from The Little Zen Companion by David Schiller.

The willow is green;
Flowers are red.
Zen saying

The flower is not red,
Nor is the willow green.
Zen saying

Fundamentally the marksman aims at himself.
Zen on archery

A monk asked Chao-chou,
"If a poor man comes what should one give him?"
"He lacks nothing."
answered the master.
Zen Mondo

Everything the same;
Everything distinct.
Zen saying

There ain't no way to find out why a snorer can't hear himself
snore.
Mark Twain
Things are entirely what they appear to be and behind
them... there is nothing.
Sartre

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees
me.
Eckhart

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear
to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake

Love God and do what you will.
St.Augustine

The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and
the circumference is nowhere.
Empedocles

If you have ask what jazz is, you'll never know.
Louis armstrong

I'm not young enough to know everything.
J.M. Barrie

If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close
his eyes and walk in the dark.
St.John of the Cross

If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.
Bulgarian proverb

One cannot step twice into the same river.
Herakleitos

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
Tom Stoppard

What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
Bertolt Brecht

Act with out doing:
Work without effort.
Tao Te Ching

Teachers open the doors, but you must enter by yourself.
Chinese proverb

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what
they sought.
Basho

Why tell animals living in water to drink?
African proverb

Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the Gods.
Socrates

Truly, I say unto you, whosoever does not receive the kingdom of
heaven like a child shall not enter it.
Luke 18:17

If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I
think there probably can be no greater happiness than this.
Kitaro Nishida