Friday, January 8, 2010

Sayings from the East

A few meditations from Asian masters:



When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much.

Fen-Yang



The Great Way is not difficult, for those who have no preferences. To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind.

Seng-T'san



In the beginners mind there are many possibilties, but in the experts mind there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki



All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

Nagarjuna



All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy. All misery comes from the desire to make oneself happy.

Shantideva

2 comments:

Jacob Feldman said...

From the Diamond Sutra:

Subhūti, do not think such a thought as "I [the Tathāgata] have something to teach." Do not even think such a thing. Why not? If someone says that the Tathāgata has a teaching to offer then he is slandering the Buddha, because he does not understand what I am teaching. Subhūti, in the teaching of the dharma, there is no dharma that can be taught. This is called teaching the dharma.

Anonymous said...

I especially like your quote from Shunryu Suzuki