- “Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”
- “Let the intellect alone, it has its usefulness in its proper sphere, but let it not interfere with the flowing of the life-stream.”
- “Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
- “The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.”
- “Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.”
- “The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.”
- “Copying is slavery. The letter must never be followed, only the spirit is to be grasped. Higher affirmations live in the spirit. And where is the spirit? Seek it in your everyday experience, and therein lies abundance of proof for all you need.”
- “The mistake consists in our splitting into two what is really and absolutely one. Is not life one as we live it, which we cut to pieces by recklessly applying the murderous knife of intellectual surgery?”
- “When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon the meaning of life, for life is after all a travelling from one unknown to another unknown.”
- “The right art is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.”
- “The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.”
- “Personal experience, therefore, is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.”
- “Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself.”
- “Fundamentally the marksman aims at himself.”
- “Art always has something of the unconscious about it.”
- “The greatest productions of art, whether painting, music, sculpture or poetry, have invariably this quality-something approaching the work of God.”
- “Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water.”
- “The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s hum drum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.”
- “Zen Makes use, to a great extent, of poetical expressions; Zen is wedded to poetry.”
- “Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.”
- “If I am asked If I am asked, then, what Zen teaches, I would answer, Zen teaches nothing. Whatever teachings there are in Zen, they come out of one’s own mind. We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way.”
- “Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Whatever is superadded or violently torn away, injures the wholesomeness of the spirit. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism.”
- “Zen wants us to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature. This is because Zen has come to the definite conclusion that the ordinary logical process of reasoning is powerless to give final satisfaction to our deepest spiritual needs.”
- “The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man’s own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within.”
- “No great work has ever been accomplished without going mad-that is, when expressed in modern terms, without breaking through the ordinary level of consciousness and letting loose the hidden powers lying further below. These powers may be devilish sometimes, but there’s no doubt that they’re superhuman and work wonders. When the unconscious is tapped, it rises above individual limitations. Death, now, loses its sting altogether. And, this is where the Samurai training joins hands with Zen.”
The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth – Dolores Cannon
January 5, 2023
