Bernie Glassman > Quotes

“Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself.”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“People get stuck a lot because they're afraid to act; in the worst case,...we get so attached to some end result that we can't function. We need help just to move on, only life doesn't wait.”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“The more you learn, the more you know that you're not so hot.”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“We freeze up because we expect a certain result or because we want things to be perfect.”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“Bearing witness is not something to be done only at Auschwitz. When we bear witness to the unfolding of our daily lives, not shrinking from any situation that arises, we learn. We open to what is. And in that process, a healing arises.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace

“Covorul ăla lumina toată camera, nu-i așa?”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“Îmi savurez cafeaua”
― Bernie Glassman, The Dude and the Zen Master

“Our actions—whether they make peace or war—reverberate throughout this universe.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace

“Adolf Hitler had also wanted a one-people event. His way of doing it was to eliminate diversity. He created hundreds of places like Auschwitz and Birkenau where he could destroy diversity and create one people who looked the same, thought the same, lived the same. But he couldn’t do it. Because the one thing we ultimately have in common is that we’re all different.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace

“We often think that to be spiritual or enlightened we need to have some special experiences, just as we think that in order to make a great meal or become a master chef we need special ingredients and a fancy kitchen. But all we have to do to make a meal is put all the pots and pans and ingredients in their proper places. And all we have to do to be in touch with our spirituality is to let the mind settle itself, like a cloudy glass of city tap water.”
― Bernie Glassman

“The thing we have in common is our diversity.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace

“Three Treasures: the Buddha, which refers to the world of oneness; the Dharma, which is the world of form; and the Sangha, or the relationship that says the two are really the same thing. We begin such study the simple way, by seeing the world of oneness, of emptiness.”
― Bernie Glassman, Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen

“We yearn to find things that are common to all human beings, around which we can come together. But underlying that yearning is the desire for people to be the same, to be the same as us, to affirm our way of seeing things. And that’s the trap.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace

“When we are enlightened, we accept samsara as it is and function directly in samsara. This is nirvana. There is no nirvana other than this.”
― Bernie Glassman, Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen

“Koan study is traditionally practiced in face-to-face encounters between student and teacher and requires an experiential, rather than an intellectual, grasp of the material.”
― Bernie Glassman, Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen

“Zazen is the elimination of distance between subject and object.”
― Bernie Glassman, Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen

“As soon as you create something you create a boundary.”
― Bernie Glassman, Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters

“In honoring our diversity, we discovered our oneness. By accepting our differences, we came together as one people.”
― Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace