Zen Koan Quotes

#1. Christopher, like most people, didn't like his universe being unfathomable, so I doubted that a Zen koan would help him.

Scarlett Thomas

#2. Well, I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.

Tom Robbins

#3. Don't wait for the man standing in the
snow
to cut off his arm help him now

Ikkyu

#4. Hearing a crow with no mouth
Cry in the deep
Darkness of the night,
I feel a longing for
My father before he was born.

Ikkyu

#5. I'm not set on a pedestal where I think I'm too high and mighty.

Naomi Campbell

#6. Loving someone is tiring and it hurts, but it's not something I can stop.

Youngjae

#7. The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one's hand and ask: "Does this spark joy?" If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it. This is not only the simplest but also the most accurate yardstick by which to judge.

Marie Kondo

#8. About the blood; it isn't yours. You put this flesh on a couple of days ago, and you'll be taking it off again soon if you can manage not to get killed first. Don't worry about wounds; check your functionality.

Richard K. Morgan

#9. When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is to paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots - it is not yet painting Spring.

Dogen

#10. Born born everything is always born
thinking about it try not to

Ikkyu

#11. If the Zen master sees that it will cause a person to progress, he will ask that person to do a task. The task is charged with power if it's performed properly. It's a koan between yourself and the Zen Master.

Frederick Lenz

#12. To be seen to be human, provided you're doing your job at the same time, is definitely not a negative, not at all.

Charles Kennedy

#13. Maturity is achieved when a person accepts life as full of tension.

Joshua Loth Liebman

#14. You are my white angel of hope at the golden gate of glory.

Kristian Goldmund Aumann

#15. Every day Zuigan used to call out to himself, "Master!" and then he answered himself, "Yes, Sir!" And he added, "Awake, Awake!" and then answered, "Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir!"
"From now onwards, do not be deceived by others!" "No, Sir! I will not, Sir!"

Wumen Huikai

#16. It isn't that we're alone or not alone
whose voice do you want mine? yours?

Ikkyu

#17. Clouds very high look
not one word helped them get up there

Ikkyu

#18. I'd love to give you something
but what would help?

Ikkyu

#19. That stone Buddha deserves all the
birdshit it gets
I wave my skinny arms like a tall
flower in the wind

Ikkyu

#20. We're lost where the mind can't find us
utterly lost

Ikkyu

#21. Part of her wanted to run. Never mind how flowing water was bound to take her to people eventually, all that was likely just a crock of Little House of the Prairie shit.

Stephen King

#22. The one and original lovable monster is lost amid all the hydraulic manipulations in what now emerges as the story of a dumb blonde who falls for a huge plastic finger.

Judith Crist

#23. Zen has lost its zip, if you will, or its nothingness and has become ritualistic Its established in monastaries with strict codes of koan study.

Frederick Lenz

#24. The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms. Everything is more beautiful when they have passed.

Madame Necker

#25. You listen to people, you listen so deeply that you can hear their past lives,
The crackle of their funeral pyres,

Dick Allen