Tag: Stones on the Path

You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually, or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul’s resources.
~ William James

All things in this worldly existence
That are colored by attachment and aversion
Are in reality devoid of any existence.
When this is seen, everything is seen as golden.
When we meditate upon the illusion-like nature
Of all illusion-like phenomena,
We attain illusion-like enlightenment.

~ Dakini Niguma, sung to Tibetan yogi Khyungpo Naljor in a charnal ground, 1th Century A.D., India (trans. Glenn Mullin)

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.
~ Frank A. Clark

Quote cited in the remarks of Marilyn Eddins, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the Colorado General Assembly, from the well during the memorial tribute to Tommy Thompson.

One moment, ten thousand years.
Ten thousand years, one moment.
~ The Buddha

No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place.
~ Zen saying

Most people think that we live in the actual world wile we are live, and that after we take the last breath we somehow wander into a vague realm of the spirit. It is a great mistake to see two separate realms. Instead, where we live is in fact the spiritual realm, a realm of many billion worlds, which goes beyond three, four, or even infinite dimensions. Then the danger is that we might think that this is a realm that is empty and boundless. Watch out! It’s all manifested right here at this moment. It is alive and kicking!
~ Soen Nakagawa

You must be somebody before you can be nobody.
~ Jack Engler

When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird.
~ John James Audubon

There’s no point in translating all of the old Chinese texts–not if you’re serious about understanding real Zen. The sound of the rain needs no translation.
~ Morimoto Roshi

Bring me a pearl from the bottom of the sea without getting wet.
~ Zen koan