spooky_nine

There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realizing its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being.

- Fingers Pointing Toward the Moon by Wei Wu Wei

"It is most urgent that you seek real, true perception,
So you can be free in the world
And not confused by ordinary teachers.
It is best to have no obsessions.
Just don’t be contrived.
Simply be normal.
You impulsively seek elsewhere,
Looking to others for your own hands and feet.
This is already mistaken."

- Linji (d. 867)

"What we call Buddhahood is the fact that all things are originally empty. Fundamentally, there is no me, no you, no dharma, no Buddha. Buddhahood is complete separation from everything, letting go and being free. Whether it is satori or anything else, if something is there, it is not."

-Shosan

"The practice of Zen
Has no secret,
Except standing on the
Verge of life and death."

-Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Mind set free in the Dharma-realm,
I sit at the moon-filled window
Watching the mountains with my ears,
Hearing the stream with open eyes.
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 (1308–1388)

It is proper to doubt. Do not be led by holy scriptures, or by mere logic or inference, or by appearances, or by the authority of religious leaders. But when you realize that something is unwholesome and bad for you, give it up. And when you realize that something is wholesome and good for you, do it.

- Buddha