Thomas Cleary > Quotes

“When flowing water...meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it...

Do not turn and run, for there is nowhere worthwhile for you to go. Do not attempt to push ahead into the danger... emulate the example of the water: Pause and build up your strength until the obstacle no longer represents a blockage.”
― Thomas F. Cleary, I Ching: The Book of Change

“The excitable observer will pass judgement first and then make knowledge conform to judgement; the prudent observer will first learn to know and then judge according to knowledge.”
― Thomas Cleary (Ways of Warriors Codes of Kings)

“So if you are going to look for a pearl, it is best to still the waves; it will be hard to find if you stir the water. When the water of concentration is still and clear, the pearl of mind reveals itself.”
― Thomas Cleary, Minding Mind: A Course in Basic Meditation

“What worlds are there herein? I’ll tell you. In these seas of fragrant waters, numerous as atoms in unspeakably many buddha-fields, rest an equal number of world systems. Each world system also contains an equal number of worlds. Those world systems in the ocean of worlds have various resting places, various shapes and forms, various substances and essences, various locations, various entryways, various adornments, various boundaries, various alignments, various similarities, and various powers of maintenance.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra

“Having one's will on the Tao is finding joy in the Tao;
when one delights in the Tao, then one can practice the Tao.”
― Thomas Cleary, Taoist I Ching

“Because of barriers of knowledge, barriers of state, and barriers of action, seeing your own buddha nature is like seeing color at night.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Five Houses of Zen

“If three people are travelling and one of them is confused, they can still get where they are going. That´s because the confused one is in the minority.
If two of them are confused, they´ll have a hard time and won´t get there, because confusion prevails.”
― Thomas Cleary, Chuang-tzu: The Outer Chapters

“In general, the practice of the Way involves blocking off errors, stopping them before they happen. It does not value self-approval, it values inability to do wrong.”
― Thomas Cleary, Wen-Tzu

“those who’ve gone wrong
follow their desires without knowledge.
So who guides those
whom God has allowed to get lost?
There are no saviors for them.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Qur'an: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary

“Be aware of yourself and know yourself. No matter how much you have learned and how much you know, if you don’t know yourself you don’t know anything. Indeed, if you don’t know yourself you cannot know anything else. People who don’t know themselves criticize others from the point of view of their own ignorant selves. They consider whatever agrees with them to be good, and hate whatever doesn’t go their way. They become irritated about everything, causing themselves to suffer by themselves, bothering themselves solely because of their own prejudices. If you know that not everyone will be agreeable to you, know that you won’t be agreeable to everyone either. Those who have no prejudices in themselves do not reject people, and therefore people do not reject them.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Japanese Art of War: Understanding the Culture of Strategy

“The Way returns the carved and the polished to simplicity.”
― Thomas Cleary

“Artist and scholar, warrior and statesman, husband and father, Ḥaḍrat ‘Alī is a traditional model for chivalry, learning, and devotion.”
― Thomas Cleary, Living and Dying with Grace: Counsels of Hadrat Ali

“The gateway to the Tao is open - anyone can come in. If you know how to change directions, the goal is near at hand.”
― Thomas Cleary, Awakening to the Tao

“Not diminishing the Way by the mind,
not trying to help the divine by means of the human.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Taoist Classics (Volume 1): The Collected Translations of Thomas Cleary

“IF RULERS are too inclined to benevolence, then the unworthy are rewarded and criminals go free. If the rulers are too inclined to punishment, then the worthy are rejected and the ignorant slaughtered.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“DUPLICITY CANNOT win a single person; wholeheartedness can win a hundred people.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“THOSE WHO know the source of law and order change to adapt to the times.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“IF THE RULERS look upon the ruled as upon their own children, then the ruled will look upon the rulers as upon their own parents.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“THE WORLD can only be entrusted to those who are able to avoid harming their countries by global ambitions and who are able to avoid ruining themselves by national ambitions.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“The nobility of the ancients was no more than purity and serenity--what need for bushels of emblems?”
― Thomas Cleary, The Pocket Zen Reader

“Therefore, the affairs of sages are limited and easy to manage; their requirements are few and easy to satisfy. They are benevolent without trying; they are trusted without speaking; they gain without seeking; they succeed without striving. They perceive reality alone, embrace virtue, and extend sincerity. Everyone follows them like echoes of sound, like reflections of form. What they cultivate is fundamental. WHEN POLITICAL leaders ruin their countries and wreck their lands, themselves to die at others’ hands, a laughingstock of all the world, it is always because of their desires. IN”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“+1-866-658-5895 ”
― Thomas Cleary, Autumn Willows

“The Book of Five Rings and The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War are both written in Japanese, rather than the literary Chinese customary in elite bureaucratic, religious, and intellectual circles in Japan at the time.”
― Thomas Cleary, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

“and then you would never be happy.” 21. ​Yet We made them known to others thus,
that they would know the promise of God
is true, and that there can be no doubt
about the end of time.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Qur'an: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary

“THE REASON why leaders are set up is to eliminate violence and quell disorder. Now they take advantage of the power of the people to become plunderers themselves. They are like winged tigers—why shouldn’t they be eliminated?”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“Enlightening beings’ sun of truth Rises in the world”
― Thomas Cleary, The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra

“​III. 23. ​Your Lord has decreed
that you should worship only God,
and be good to your parents.
Whether one or both of them
reaches old age with you,
never speak to them harshly,”
― Thomas Cleary, The Qur'an: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary

“WHEN SOCIETY is orderly, a fool alone cannot disturb it; when society is chaotic, a sage alone cannot bring order.”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“Traditions about sage kings of old as recorded in ancient documents”
― Thomas Cleary, The Book of Leadership and Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters

“Openness and affability in people are gotten from nature—if you try to force them, they will not last long.”
― Thomas Cleary, Zen Lessons: The Art of Leadership