Soto Zen Quotes

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CedarTree
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Soto Zen Quotes

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I am going to be posting awesome quotes from the Soto Zen tradition here. I welcome others to post as well!

Feel free to ask questions and discuss quotes!

If you are from a certain Soto Zen Lineage and want to give a shout out feel free!
Ex: I follow the Kosho Uchiyama - Shohaku Okumura lineage as is practiced at Gyobutsuji Zen Monastery in America and Antaiji in Japan!

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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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“To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.”

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jkarlins
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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source?
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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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jkarlins wrote:source?
Founder of Soto Zen - Dogen

Work - Genjōkōan

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jkarlins
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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thanks
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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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jkarlins wrote:thanks
Now you have to find a good Soto Zen quote and post. That's how it works ;)

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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wrote:When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world," but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, "I breathe," the "I" is extra. There is no you to say "I." What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no " I , " no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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tomamundsen wrote:
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi wrote:When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world," but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, "I breathe," the "I" is extra. There is no you to say "I." What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no " I , " no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
Thanks for participating Tomamundsen and great choice! :anjali:

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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”

- The famous line of Shunryu Suzuki

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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Throughout night,
All day long,
Everything we do following the way of Dharma,
Is the sound and the heart of this Sutra.

*Poem about the Lotus Sutra*

In Soto Zen the Lotus Sutra is not necessarily the written text but everything we experience.

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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Dogen, Genjokoan wrote:Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?"

"Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere."

"What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Dogen, Fukanzazengi wrote:The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment.
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Dogen wrote:"Because a buddha is in birth and death, there is no birth and death."

It is also said, "Because a buddha is not in birth and death, a buddha is not deluded by birth and death."

These statements are the essence of the words of the two Zen masters Jiashan and Dingshan. You should certainly not neglect them, because they are the words of those who attained the way.
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Shunryu Suzuki wrote:After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress.
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Thomas Amundsen
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Dogen, Zanmai O Zanmai wrote:Abruptly transcending all realms, to be greatly honored within the quarters of the buddhas and ancestors—this is sitting with legs crossed...the buddhas and ancestors engage in it, without any further task...It is rare to have clarified that sitting is the buddha dharma, that the buddha dharma is sitting. Even if [some] realize sitting as the buddha dharma, they have not understood sitting as sitting — let alone maintained the buddha dharma as the buddha dharma... The Buddha Śākyamuni addressed the great assembly, saying,

When sitting with legs crossed,
Body and mind realizing samādhi,
One’s majesty, the multitudes respect,
Like the sun illumining the world.
Removed, the lethargy clouding the mind,
The body light, without pain or fatigue;
The awareness similarly light and easy,
One sits calmly, like the dragon coiled.
King Māra is startled and fearful
On seeing depicted [one] sitting with legs crossed,
How much more [on seeing] one who realizes the way,
Sitting calmly without stirring...

Therefore, [the Buddha] sits with legs crossed...The World Honored One always maintains sitting with legs crossed; and to the disciples he correctly transmits sitting with legs crossed; and to the humans and gods he teaches sitting with legs crossed. The mind seal correctly transmitted by the seven buddhas is this...This is precisely the time when beings attain buddhahood
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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Dogen studied with Master Rujing. One evening during the intensive summer training, in the first year of Pao-chang, 1225, Rujing shouted at a disciple, “When you study under a master, you must drop the body and mind. What is the use of single-minded intense sleeping?”
Sitting right beside this monastic, Dogen suddenly attained great enlightenment. Immediately, he went up to the abbot’s room and burned incense. Rujing said, “Why are you burning incense?” Dogen said, “Body and mind have been dropped off.” Rujing said, “Body and mind dropped off. The dropped-off body and mind.” Dogen said, “This may only be a temporary ability. Please don’t approve me arbitrarily.” Rujing said, “I am not.” Dogen said, “What is that which isn’t given arbitrary approval?” Rujing said, “Body and mind dropped off.” Dogen bowed. Rujing said, “The dropping off is dropped.”
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen.

Kodo Sawaki
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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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tomamundsen wrote:
Dogen, Fukanzazengi wrote:The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment.
You beat me to it!

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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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jkarlins wrote:We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen.

Kodo Sawaki
Grandfather in the lineage I follow, awesome choice!

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CedarTree
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Re: Soto Zen Quotes

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"Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken. Take heed, do not squander your life."

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