Still Here

Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
— Lenny Bruce, in David Schiller, The Little Zen Companion, p. 20.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
— Leonard Cohen, in Ibid., p. 26.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
— Dogen, in Ibid., p. 28.

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
— Robert M. Pirsig, in Ibid., p. 28.


                THE SECRET SITS

We dance around in a ring and suppose,
But the secret sits in the middle and knows.
— Robert Frost, in Ibid., p. 29.

Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while
A great wind is bearing me across the sky.
— Ojibwa Saying, in Ibid., p. 43.

The map is not the territory.
— Alfred Korzbyski, in Ibid., p. 67.

The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.
— Walker Percy, in Ibid., p. 68.

If you seek, how is that different from pursuing sound and form? If you don't seek, how are you different from earth, wood or stone? You must seek without seeking.
— Wu-men, in Ibid., p. 69.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
— Gauguin, inscription on one of his paintings,  in Ibid., p. 70.

In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
— Yun-men, in Ibid., p. 71.

     If you want to understand Zen easily, just be mindless, wherever you are, twenty-four hours a day, until you spontaneously merge with the Way.
     This is what an ancient worthy called "The mind not touching things, the steps not placed anywhere."
— Ying-an, in Ibid., p. 82.

The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height but just above the ground. It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon.
— Franz Kafka, in Ibid., p. 83.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
— Basho, in Ibid., p. 107.

God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through.
— Paul Valéry, in Ibid., p. 176.

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
— Tao Te Ching, in Ibid., p. 178.

The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes — ah, that is where the art resides!
— Artur Schnable, in Ibid., p. 179.

Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.
— Simone Weil, in Ibid., p. 192.

Ten years' searching in the deep forest
Today great laughter at the edge of the lake.
— Soen, in Ibid., p. 193.

When a fish swims, it swims on and on, and there is no end to the water. When a bird flies, it flies on and on, and there is no end to the sky. There was never a fish that swam out of the water, or a bird that flew out of the sky. When they need a little water or sky, they use just a little; when they need a lot, they use a lot. Thus they use all of it at every moment, and in every place they have perfect freedom.
— Dogen, in Ibid., p. 216.

Each portion of matter may be conceived of as a garden full of plants, and as a pond full of fishes. But each branch of the plant, each member of the animal, each drop of its humors, is also such a garden or such a pond.
— Leibniz, in Ibid., p. 218.

As is the human body,
   so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind,
   so is the cosmic mind.
As is the microcosm,
   so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom,
   so is the universe.
— The Upanishads, in Ibid., p. 219.

One real world is enough.
— Santayana, in Ibid., p. 228.

Each molecule preaches perfect law,
Each moment chants true sutra:
The most fleeting thought is timeless,
A single hair's enough to stir the sea.
— Shutaku, in Ibid., p. 229.

1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
— Albert Einstein, three rules of work,  in Ibid., p. 300.

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
— Shunryu Suzuki, in Ibid., p. 301.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.
— H. L. Mencken, in Ibid., p. 324.

You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
— G. K. Chesterton, in Ibid., p. 354.