I don't think anyone knows why they meditate. As a matter of fact I'm not even sure that we do meditate. All we know is that we don't know.
The world is filled with people who understand. I personally value people who don't understand. People who understand have nothing more to learn. People who don't understand have hope. Do you understand?
You come back to the beginning. That's why in the "Searching for the Ox" sequence, at the very end of that sequence of the Zen paintings, we're back in the world again.
There are no words, there's only the possibility of a moment even more incredible a little bit further down the road.
You and I are both life. There's just the experience of every moment. We like to call them moments. There isn't really such a thing. There's just is-ness; there's just eternity.
The mind of the Buddha is perfect because it is empty and yet it contains all things.
Forever is not an idea or a concept, it is reality. All of the things here come from forever. We call forever nirvana in Zen.
You may have had countless lives, and many more stretching before you, and what else have you got to do with your time?
I don't know how much you know about Zen, but you'll know less when I'm done with you.
Tonight is not the end of the world. This is our hot tip of the evening.
Buddhism is the study of the way the mind works. One has to be able to hold a large number of relational concepts simultaneously in the mind. It is necessary to grid, to literally unlock realities and dimensions with the power of your mind.
What is evil? There is no such thing. In Buddhism we don't recognize evil and therefore we don't give it any power over us.
In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the present and of future moments.
Buddhism leads you to the awareness that all things are holy. Everything is holy. The dark has its own light, in other words.
Buddhism is the study of power initially. It takes a certain amount of power to even know your potential - to have the sense that you can change the way you perceive.
Buddhism is the study of changing who we are, modifying or perhaps totally restructuring ourselves as perceivers.
The thing about Buddhism is that it stresses attainment of something ineffable, that is where it differs from other religions in that it's more correct. We live in a world with promises of paradise.
Buddhism suggests there are no elect. Everything rests upon your own self-effort, which is the good news because that means you don't have to wait around for some nebulous God to help you.
Buddhism doesn't come from anybody. It exists by itself.
Buddhism is yoga. Yoga started, who knows when? A long time ago, when the first person found that they could still their thoughts and experience eternity and access the higher planes of mind.
Real Buddhism is about meditation.
The essential premise of Buddhism is that there is enlightenment, there is nirvana. Beyond this world, beyond all worlds, there's something radiant, perfect and eternal.
Buddhism is simply a methodology, a way of becoming one with the part of ourselves that is happy.
Buddhism is the study of how to be immeasurably happy.
Even if you are focusing on a chakra, you don't want to do that for the whole period of meditation. There should be a point where you let go. Settle down. Get off the train of thought for a while.
