Loori Quotes

#1. A recently deceased American Zen master and navy veteran, John Daido Loori, used to say that those who think Buddhism is just about stillness end up sitting very silently up to their necks in their own shit.

Mark Epstein

#2. If you miss the moment, you miss your life.

John Daido Loori

#3. The women are young, young, young, liquidy and sweet-looking; they are batter, and I am the sponge cake they don't know they'll become. I stand here, a lone loaf, stuck to the pan.

Melissa Bank

#4. Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.

Agatha Christie

#5. There is no place to search for the truth. Though it's right beneath your feet, it can't be found.

John Daido Loori

#6. Just sitting does not involve reaching some understanding. It is the subtle activity of allowing all things to be completely at rest just as they are, not poking one's head into the workings of the world.

John Daido Loori

#7. In the action of no-action (wu-wei), a cardinal aspect of the true creative process is set forth. In wu-wei, the mind is silenced and the work is allowed to express itself.

John Daido Loori

#8. To be simple means to make a choice about what's important, and let go of all the rest. When we are able to do this, our vision expands, our heads clear, and we can better see the details of our lives in all their incredible wonder and beauty.

John Daido Loori

#9. Words and ideas are a description of reality, silence is a negation of reality. What is the reality itself?

John Daido Loori

#10. To be still means to empty yourself from the incessant flow of thoughts and create a state of consciousness that is open and receptive.

John Daido Loori

#11. No creature, large or small, ever fails to cover the ground upon which it stands.

John Daido Loori

#12. Wordless is not the same of expressionless. All phenomenon of the universe, audible and inaudible, tangible and intangible, sentient and insentient, are the clear and ceaseless expression of the buddha nature.

John Daido Loori

#13. The creative process, like a spiritual journey, is intuitive, non-linear, and experiential. It points us toward our essential nature, which is a reflection of the boundless creativity of the universe.

John Daido Loori

#14. Athletics have become professionalized.

Socrates

#15. Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!

Wislawa Szymborska

#16. What transpires for the least significant member transpires at once for the whole.

John Daido Loori

#17. I would say that if you really wished to be a working member of the community, don't go out on strike because then there's no work and no potential of work.

Dick Wolf

#18. The future doesn't exist. It hasn't happened yet. The past doesn't exist. It has already happened.

John Daido Loori

#19. With you, my life felt indeed like a fantastic adventure - despite our ordinary circumstances, your love imbued everything we did with secret riches.

Nicholas Sparks

#20. There's nothing wrong with being a fashion photographer, but it's a bit limited.

David Bailey

#21. It is possible to do something, and to do something meticulously and completely with out creating a goal ... all nature works this way.

John Daido Loori

#22. Creativity is our birthright. It is an integral part of being human, as basic as walking, talking and thinking.

John Daido Loori

#23. Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

Josh Billings

#24. To know objects only through dissecting and cataloguing them is to miss their full reality. It is to fall asleep amidst the mystery and to become numb to the wonder of this great Earth.

John Daido Loori