Zen Impermanence Quotes & Sayings

The story of the Zen Master whose only response was always "Is that so?" shows the good that comes through inner nonresistance to events, that is to say, being at one with what happens. The story of the man whose comment was invariably a laconic "Maybe" illustrates the wisdom of nonjudgment, and the story of the ring points to the fact of impermanence which, when recognized, leads to nonattachment. Nonresistance, nonjudgement, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living. — Eckhart Tolle

I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past."
"Can't repeat the past? he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can! — F Scott Fitzgerald

The world
this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult ... So much only of life as I know by experience ... The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

You're not broken.' I touch the angel between the wings on his back for emphasis. 'You're putting your life back together. Building isn't breaking, Chase. — S.R. Grey

I'm a New York story. — Steve Madden

There is often in people in whom 'the worst' has happened an almost transcendent freedom, for they have faced 'the worst' and survived it. — Carol Lynn Pearson

Many have died; you also will die. The drum of death is being beaten. The world has fallen in love with a dream. Only sayings of the wise will remain. — Kabir

You put aside the work that's done, and seek some work to do. — Ovid

Good thoughts without actions are like a ship stuck in a port. — Debasish Mridha

Your body is like a dew-drop on the morning grass, your life is as brief as a flash of lightning. Momentary and vain, it is lost in a moment. (From 'Fukan zazengi') — Dogen

The issue [Israeli-Palestinian conflict], already lasting more than half a century, has brought deep suffering to the Palestinian people and remains an important reason of extended turbulence in the Middle East region. — Xi Jinping

The irony of the present day is, the more human rights jurisprudence seems to be fortified, the more there are human rights violations in newer and newer forms and some recidivism all due to the conflicting deductions of protecting even human rights of offenders. No doubts offenders deserve their rights to be protected but in cases of serious offenses such as 'rape' where the offender consciously commits the act while being aware of the justice system in his particular country, prefers to cross the precincts of the law. Worst still, is increasing crime rate of offenses such as rape committed against children and infants. — Henrietta Newton Martin

Don't think you are looking at me because you are not. — Eugene Ormandy

Consider the sunlight. You may see it is near, yet if you follow it from world to world you will never catch it in your hands. Then you may describe it as far away and, lo, you will see it just before your eyes. Follow it and, behold, it escapes you; run from it and it follows you close. You can neither possess it nor have done with it. From this example you can understand how it is with the true Nature of all things and, henceforth, there will be no need to grieve or to worry about such things. — Huang Po

Sometimes it takes a miracle to remind us that the only permanent condition is that of impermanence. — Eric Micha'el Leventhal

I don't want my past to determine my future - and my future is you, Josh. — Jay McLean

One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world. — Dogen

Like man himself, who is the only one not to know his own glance, the [Eiffel] Tower is the only blind point f the total optical system of which it is the center and Paris the circumference. — Roland Barthes

My publishers will make any kind of a beautiful book I design and send in to them, but ... For poetry they have less use than a rooster would have for skates. — Gene Stratton-Porter

We have almost all had the experience of gazing at the full moon. But those of us who are neither astronomers nor astronauts are unlikely to have scheduled moongazing appointments. For Zen Buddhists in Japan, however, every year, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar, followers gather at nightfall around specially constructed cone-shaped viewing platforms, where for several hours prayers are read aloud which use the moon as a springboard for reflections on Zen ideas of impermanence, a ritual known as tsukimi. Candles are lit and white rice dumplings (tsukimi dango) are prepared and shared out among strangers in an atmosphere at once companionable and serene, a feeling thereby supported by a ceremony, by architecture, by good company and by food. — Alain De Botton

But are not this struggle and even the mistakes one may make better, and do they not develop us more, than if we kept systematically away from emotions? — Vincent Van Gogh