As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don’t seek the truth; just drop your opinions”. Drop your theories; don’t seek the truth.
There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.
When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
So love the thought of death, love it.
The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and his song – not one. Not two.
The human mind makes foolish divisions in what love sees as one.
There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law. ‘Obedience keeps the rules,’ he would say. ‘Love knows when to break them.’
You’ve got to drop something. You’ve got to drop illusions. You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings.
One always treads with a joyful step when one has dropped the burden called the ego.
All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I’m gone, I trust you will notice the river.
When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.
In many ways we were drugged when we were young. We were brought up to need people. For what? For acceptance, approval, appreciation, applause.
Most people don’t live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical thoughts – generally somebody else’s – mechanical emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions.
We’re crazy, We’re living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything.
Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth.
Can one talk about the ocean to a frog in a well or about the divine to people who are restricted by their concepts?
When someone offends you, you can raise your spirits to heights where offenses cannot reach.
There’s nothing you can do to see – it is a gift.
The spiritual quest is a journey without distance. You travel from where you are right now To where you have always been. From ignorance to recognition...
The seeker says, “I do not know.” That takes honesty. The master says, “I do not know.” That takes a mystic’s mind that knows things through non-knowing. The disciple says, “I know.” That takes ignorance, in the form of borrowed knowledge.
When you cling, life is destroyed; when you hold on to anything, you cease to live.