Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
When we encounter good manners, we feel that some deeper part of us has been honoured. Truly, none of us deserves anything less.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience
The mind that rests only on the surface of things will be tossed about in every storm. Let me dive deep to where peace can always be found.
Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.
We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.
Death is the only thing we haven't succeeded in completely vulgarizing.
It takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did it wrong.
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
The moment you start seeing life as non-serious, a playfulness, all the burden on your heart disappears. All the fear of death, of life, of love - everything disappears. One starts living with a very light weight or almost no weight. So weightless one becomes, one can fly in the open sky.
Zens greatest contribution is to give you an alternative to the serious man. The serious man has made the world, the serious man has made all the religions. He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serious man. Zen has dropped out of the serious world. It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children.
You learn how to cut down trees cutting them down.
A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.
