Muso Soseki Quotes & Sayings

When it's cold, water freezes into ice; when it's warm, ice melts into water. Similarly, when you are confused, essence freezes into mind; when you are enlightened, mind melts into essence. — Muso Soseki

Old age and death are in the natural course of things. There is nothing a doctor can do about them. — Muso Soseki

It is better to practice a little than talk a lot. — Muso Soseki

My thatched hut;
the whole sky Is its roof
The mountains are its hedge,
And it has the sea for a garden.
I'm inside with nothing at all,
Not even a bag,
And yet there are visitors who say "
It's hidden behind a bamboo door"
- Muso Soseki — Muso Soseki

When there is no place that you have decided to call your own, then no matter where you go, you are always heading home. — Muso Soseki

All worries and troubles have gone from my breast and I play joyfully far from the world. For a person of Zen, no limits exist. The blue sky must feel ashamed to be so small."
Muso Soseki — Muso Soseki

If the wrong person preaches a right teaching, even a right teaching can become wrong. If a right person expounds a wrong teaching, even a wrong teaching can become right. — Muso Soseki

Those who seek liberation for themselves alone cannot become fully enlightened. Though it may be said that one who is not already liberated cannot liberate others, the very process of forgetting oneself to help others is in itself liberating — Muso Soseki

The central benefit of Zen, in the context of ordinary ups and downs of life,is not in preventing the minus and promoting the plus,but in directing people to the fundamental reality that is not under the sway of ups and downs. — Muso Soseki

When a garden is used as a place to pause for thought, that is when a Zen garden comes to life. When you contemplate a garden like this it will form as lasting impression on your heart. — Muso Soseki

It would be merciful for people not to come calling and disturb the loneliness of the mountains to which I have returned from the sorrows of the world. — Muso Soseki