Soto Zen Quotes

User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

"The study of the self. This is the foundational practice of Buddhism. Basically it's the whole point. So what is the point... What is this really about? To study the self addresses everything we encounter in life. We can't encounter anything but the self actually. It's about our entire experience of living. Of life and death.

It addresses questions such as "Who am I?", "What is the nature of my suffering?" ... "And my well-being", "What is my place in this world?", "What is my relationship to the things I encounter?" ... And ultimately "How do I live a life of meaning and energy?""

- Shoryu Bradley

Practice, Practice, Practice
User avatar
Astus
Former staff member
Posts: 8881
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:22 pm
Location: Budapest

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by Astus »

“Kind speech” means, when meeting living beings, first of all to feel compassion for them and to offer caring and loving words. Broadly, it is there being no rude or bad words. In secular societies there are polite customs of asking others if they are well. In Buddhism there are the words “Take good care of yourself!” and there is the disciple’s greeting “How are you?” Speaking with the feeling of “compassion for living beings as if they were babies” is kind speech. We should praise those who have virtue and should pity those who lack virtue. Through love of kind speech, kind speech is gradually nurtured. Thus, kind speech which is ordinarily neither recognized nor experienced manifests itself before us. While the present body and life exist we should enjoy kind speech, and we will not regress or deviate through many ages and many lives. Whether in defeating adversaries or in promoting harmony among gentlefolk, kind speech is fundamental. To hear kind speech spoken to us directly makes the face happy and the mind joyful. To hear kind speech indirectly etches an impression in the heart and in the soul. Remember, kind speech arises from a loving mind, and the seed of a loving mind is compassion. We should learn that kind speech has the power to turn around the heavens; it is not merely the praise of ability.
(Dogen: Four Elements of a Bodhisattva’s Social Relations, in SBGZ, vol 3, BDK ed, p 41)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

Astus wrote:“Kind speech” means, when meeting living beings, first of all to feel compassion for them and to offer caring and loving words. Broadly, it is there being no rude or bad words. In secular societies there are polite customs of asking others if they are well. In Buddhism there are the words “Take good care of yourself!” and there is the disciple’s greeting “How are you?” Speaking with the feeling of “compassion for living beings as if they were babies” is kind speech. We should praise those who have virtue and should pity those who lack virtue. Through love of kind speech, kind speech is gradually nurtured. Thus, kind speech which is ordinarily neither recognized nor experienced manifests itself before us. While the present body and life exist we should enjoy kind speech, and we will not regress or deviate through many ages and many lives. Whether in defeating adversaries or in promoting harmony among gentlefolk, kind speech is fundamental. To hear kind speech spoken to us directly makes the face happy and the mind joyful. To hear kind speech indirectly etches an impression in the heart and in the soul. Remember, kind speech arises from a loving mind, and the seed of a loving mind is compassion. We should learn that kind speech has the power to turn around the heavens; it is not merely the praise of ability.
(Dogen: Four Elements of a Bodhisattva’s Social Relations, in SBGZ, vol 3, BDK ed, p 41)
My "Soto Zen Quotes" summoned the most beloved Dharma Wheel Zen poster!!!!!!!!!!

Astus how are you!!!!! What have you all been up too!!!!! We never really chatted much on here but I have enjoyed your posts and perspectives. Seems you haven't been around much! Hopefully you are a Zen monk these days ;)?

Practice, Practice, Practice
User avatar
Astus
Former staff member
Posts: 8881
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:22 pm
Location: Budapest

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by Astus »

CedarTree wrote:Seems you haven't been around much! Hopefully you are a Zen monk these days ;)?
"When we fail, it is already progress to understand that we have failed. We train ourselves by making that failure a stepping-stone for a pace forward. The practice of Buddhism is to realize that the present success is the hundred failures of the past. When we understand that, no confusions or disturbances will arise."
(Takashina Rosen: A Tongue-Tip Taste of Zen, in T. Leggett: A First Zen Reader, p 49)

"I wonder why we are always avoiding and running away from the real purpose of life. I think is because of our anticipatory nature, a dream of something else, something better, than what one already is. This dream arises from our attachment to the ego. So we continue to roam about, motivated by our unconscious fixed idea that we dislike ourselves as we are."
(Hogen Yamahata: The Other Shore, p 32)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

"Aggression, Violence, Exploitation, Depression, Despair, Prejudice, War, Intolerance, Poverty, Are all a result of a misunderstanding of the nature of Self."

Shoryu Bradley

Practice, Practice, Practice
joy&peace
Posts: 1115
Joined: Mon May 11, 2015 4:53 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by joy&peace »

Nice.
Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate bodhi svaha
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

joy&peace wrote:Nice.
Now you have to share :anjali:

Practice, Practice, Practice
Anonymous X
Posts: 813
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:43 am
Location: Bangkok

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by Anonymous X »

Zazenshin (The Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Hongzhi Zhengjue

The fundamental activity of all Buddhas
The active foundation of all Ancestors
Is knowing things – but not through contact
And illuminating conditions -but not through contrast.

The knowing that is not through contact
Is a subtle natural knowing,
The illumination not through contrast
Is a wondrous natural illumination.

This subtle natural knowing
Has ever been without discriminative thinking,
This wondrous natural illumination
Has never shown the slightest appearance.

This knowing without discriminative thinking
Is a wondrous unparalleled knowing,
This clarifying without the slightest appearance
Is an understanding without any ‘understanding'.

The water is clear right to the bottom,
Fish have yet to appear;
The sky is vast without end,
Birds have flown far out of sight.
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

Anonymous X wrote:Zazenshin (The Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Hongzhi Zhengjue

The fundamental activity of all Buddhas
The active foundation of all Ancestors
Is knowing things – but not through contact
And illuminating conditions -but not through contrast.

The knowing that is not through contact
Is a subtle natural knowing,
The illumination not through contrast
Is a wondrous natural illumination.

This subtle natural knowing
Has ever been without discriminative thinking,
This wondrous natural illumination
Has never shown the slightest appearance.

This knowing without discriminative thinking
Is a wondrous unparalleled knowing,
This clarifying without the slightest appearance
Is an understanding without any ‘understanding'.

The water is clear right to the bottom,
Fish have yet to appear;
The sky is vast without end,
Birds have flown far out of sight.
Epic

Practice, Practice, Practice
joy&peace
Posts: 1115
Joined: Mon May 11, 2015 4:53 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by joy&peace »

Ok :)

Once, my back wedded to the solid cliff,
I sat silently, bathed in the full moon's light.

I counted there ten thousand shapes,
None with substance save the moon's own glow.

The pristine mind is empty as the moon,
I thought, and like the moon, freely shines.

By what I knew of moon I knew the mind,
Each mirror to each, profound as stone.

- Han Shan

https://www.gardendigest.com/zen/hsind.htm
Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate bodhi svaha
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

"Our little baby inside has been done wrong, it needs justice, it needs help, but you can't give a baby the teachings of emptiness. ... They just keep crying all the louder."

Shoryu Bradley

Practice, Practice, Practice
joy&peace
Posts: 1115
Joined: Mon May 11, 2015 4:53 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by joy&peace »

'In the path, no difference exists between Southern and Northern ancestors.'

-Shitou
Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate bodhi svaha
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

The world that is always there when we let go of our idea of what it is, and let it manifest through our own life.

It is actually the world of impermanence and lack of independent existence. It is the world of emptiness.

This world in which all things give and receive together as one body without being concerned about individuality or universality. Simply expressing life.

Other names for this world are "Nirvana", "Indra's Net", "Emptiness", "The network of inter-dependent origination", Pure land Buddhists may call it "Amitabha Buddha's Compassion", Some of us might call it "Grace" or simply "Life".


- Shoryu Bradley

Practice, Practice, Practice
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

What actually happens in practice is way beyond our comprehension. We get something much better than our tiny little desires can grasp.

- Shoryu Bradley

Practice, Practice, Practice
Anonymous X
Posts: 813
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:43 am
Location: Bangkok

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by Anonymous X »

Baizhang Huaihai from 'Baizhang's Extensive Record'

All verbal teachings are just like cures for diseases. Because the diseases are not the same, the medicines are also not the same. That's why it's sometimes said that there is original nature, and sometimes that there is no original nature. True words cure sickness. If the treatment brings about healing, then the words are true. If they cannot cure sickness, then they're false words. True words are false if they give rise to viewpoints. False words become true if they cut off the delusions of beings. Because the diseases are unreal, there are only unreal medicines to cure them.
shaunc
Posts: 883
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:10 am

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by shaunc »

Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain,
But at the peak we all gaze at the same bright moon.
Ikkyu.
jkarlins
Posts: 561
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:58 am
Location: Amesbury, MA USA

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by jkarlins »

A Crazy Cloud, out in the open,
Blown about madly, as wild as they come!
Who knows where this cloud will go, where the wind will still?
The sun rises from the eastern sea, and shines over the land.

Forests and fields, rocks and weeds - my true companions.
The wild ways of the Crazy Cloud will never change.
People think I'm mad but I don't care:
If I'm a demon here on earth, there is no need to fear the hereafter.

Every day, priests minutely examine the Dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon.

Ikkyu
User avatar
aflatun
Posts: 139
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 3:21 am
Location: Bay Area, CA

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by aflatun »

Anonymous X wrote:Baizhang Huaihai from 'Baizhang's Extensive Record'

All verbal teachings are just like cures for diseases. Because the diseases are not the same, the medicines are also not the same. That's why it's sometimes said that there is original nature, and sometimes that there is no original nature. True words cure sickness. If the treatment brings about healing, then the words are true. If they cannot cure sickness, then they're false words. True words are false if they give rise to viewpoints. False words become true if they cut off the delusions of beings. Because the diseases are unreal, there are only unreal medicines to cure them.
:good:
"People often get too quick to say 'there's no self. There's no self...no self...no self.' There is self, there is focal point, its not yours. That's what not self is."

Ninoslav Ñāṇamoli
Senses and the Thought-1, 42:53

"Those who create constructs about the Buddha,
Who is beyond construction and without exhaustion,
Are thereby damaged by their constructs;
They fail to see the Thus-Gone.

That which is the nature of the Thus-Gone
Is also the nature of this world.
There is no nature of the Thus-Gone.
There is no nature of the world."

Nagarjuna
MMK XXII.15-16
User avatar
CedarTree
Posts: 555
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:13 pm

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by CedarTree »

jkarlins wrote:A Crazy Cloud, out in the open,
Blown about madly, as wild as they come!
Who knows where this cloud will go, where the wind will still?
The sun rises from the eastern sea, and shines over the land.

Forests and fields, rocks and weeds - my true companions.
The wild ways of the Crazy Cloud will never change.
People think I'm mad but I don't care:
If I'm a demon here on earth, there is no need to fear the hereafter.

Every day, priests minutely examine the Dharma
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by the wind and rain, the snow and moon.

Ikkyu
shaunc wrote:Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain,
But at the peak we all gaze at the same bright moon.
Ikkyu.

Shaunc, jkarlins

thanks for getting the Ikkyu train going. Incredible quotes and zen master!

Practice, Practice, Practice
jkarlins
Posts: 561
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:58 am
Location: Amesbury, MA USA

Re: Soto Zen Quotes

Post by jkarlins »

Happy to!

I have to read more of his stuff now, more Zen poetry in general.

Jake
Post Reply

Return to “Soto”