The Marrow Of Zen Quotes & Sayings

Everybody has a colon. Everyone over 50 needs to get their colon checked. — Julie Gerberding

Those who can sit perfectly physically usually take more time to obtain the true way of Zen, the actual feeling of Zen, the marrow of Zen. — Shunryu Suzuki

The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next. - RALPH WALDO EMERSON — Richard Dawkins

One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. — Barry Lopez

The most important part of the practice is for the question to remain alive and for your whole body and mind to become a question. In Zen they say that you have to ask with the pores of your skin and the marrow of your bones. A Zen saying points out: Great questioning, great awakening; little questioning, little awakening; no questioning, no awakening. — Martine Batchelor

I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel. — W. Somerset Maugham

In the zazen posture, your mind and body have, great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.
In our scriptures (Samyuktagama Sutra, volume 33), it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones, good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of the whip; the second best will run as well as the first one does, just before the whip reaches its skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth will run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. You can imagine how difficult it is for the fourth one to learn how to run! — Shunryu Suzuki

You remember that illuminated text over the dining-room door
"The Lord Will Provide." We've painted it out, and covered the spot with rabbits. It's all very well to teach so easy a belief to normal children, who have a proper family and roof behind them; but a person whose only refuge in distress will be a park bench must learn a more militant creed than that. — Jean Webster

If I am transparent enough to myself, then I can become less afraid of those hidden selves that my transparency may reveal to others. If I reveal myself without worrying about how others will respond, then some will care, though others may not. But who can love me, if no one knows me? I must risk it, or live alone. It is enough that I must die alone. I am determined to let down my walls, whatever the risks, if it means that I may have whatever is there for me. — Sheldon B. Kopp

Sometimes, you just let the country have its way, and you don't try to determine the shape of the country. You sort of modestly step back and let the country figure out what it believes. — Mark Shields

Activism has to remain active. That's the trademark slogan and that's the mantra, because if your foot doesn't stay on the pedal, the car will stop. — Bethann Hardison

I loved all my children, but I loved Ronsel the most. If that was a sin I reckoned God would forgive me for it, seeing as how He the one stacked the cards in the first place. — Hillary Jordan

You will find the worst horse is the most valuable one. In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind ... But those who find great difficulties in practicing Zen will find more meaning in it. So I think that sometimes the best horse may be the worst horse, and the worst horse can be the best one. — Shunryu Suzuki

Oh...oh, goddess, it's true about your tongues... — Savannah Stuart

The real compensation of a right action is inherent in having performed it. — Seneca The Younger

It is possible that, post-Kyoto, the developed countries will recognise the requirements of the developing world. — P. Chidambaram

A good teacher feels his way, looking for response. — Paul Goodman