Kobun Quotes & Sayings

One of the most under-rated gifts we can give to others, is our undivided attention. Next time you spend time with a loved one, really listen to them and watch light up when they realize you are being completely attentive to them. There is so much to be learned and experienced when we can become great listeners! — Jaeda DeWalt

I would like to suggest that what my accusers have been pleased to call the peace of the Church is more properly called the sleepiness of the Church and we should be thankful to God that it has been disturbed. — Lloyd Geering

But something bigger was going on. It's something that marks my generation - generation X - and now the generation behind me - generation Y, the millennials. — Lisa Anderson

The discovery of an effective treatment for scurvy greatly contributed to British control of the world's oceans and its ability to send armies to the other side of the world. — Yuval Noah Harari

I lean with the hill. I know I'm doing it right if it feels like I'm going to fall on my face but I don't. — Ed Eyestone

We are all affected by the time we are born into, and of course that feeds into your work. Society is based on storytelling - religious myths, opera, film - and 1968 was always seen as a time of rupture and fragmentation. I have always been interested in those words. — Doug Aitken

Kottke found Kobun amusing. — Walter Isaacson

Isn't that how it is when you must decide with your heart? You are not just choosing one thing over another. You are choosing what you want. And you are also choosing what somebody else does not want, and all the consequences that follow. You can tell yourself, That's not my problem, but those words do not wash the trouble away. Maybe it is no longer a problem in your life. But it is always a problem in your heart. — Amy Tan

It is a different matter entirely to commit military resources to keep peace in such areas, where often no peace can be kept, or to build nations in our own image before they are ready for our freedoms - or even want them. The military need not do the work of sanctions and diplomacy. As we carry on in this new century, we would do well to remember the importance of balancing the twin goals of our foreign policy: preserving national security and promoting democratic principles. And we must remember that historic conflicts between enemies can be won on moral force, without firing a single bullet or missile; that cultural, market, political, and perhaps religious forces can be far more transformative in areas of the world where chaos and violence reign; and that America can contribute to the building of nations by any and all of these means - while preserving our military and reserving our sovereign right to wage war to maintain true peace. — Jeane Kirkpatrick

When all the teachers are gone, who will be your teacher?
The student replied: "Everything!
Kobun, paused, then said: "No, you". — Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while. — Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi

In love there are no rules, only exceptions. — Marty Rubin

We sit to make life meaningful. The significance of our life is not experienced in striving to create some perfect thing. We must simply start with accepting ourselves. Sitting brings us back to actually who and where we are. This can be very painful. Self-acceptance is the hardest thing to do. If we can't accept ourselves, we are living in ignorance, this darkest night. We may still be awake, but we don't know where we are. We cannot see. The mind has no light. Practice is this candle in our very darkest room. — Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi

When had being an addict gotten so fucking hard? So exhausting? It had been so easy for so long; she had a steady supply, she kept to herself, nobody bothered her. Now she was constantly up to her ears in intrigue and complications, being torn in every direction but her own, all thanks to her need for those pills — Stacia Kane

(While it's lovely to be childlike in your pursuit of creativity, in other words, it's dangerous to be childish.) — Elizabeth Gilbert