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Zen to Go
A compilation of insightful, humorous, and spiritually uplifting sayings represents Zen masters, as well as contemporary sages ranging from Miss Manners, Allen Ginsberg, Joan Didion, and Jung to Yogi Berra
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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63 people want to read
About the author
Jon Winokur
35 books18 followersJon Winokur (b. Aug. 5, 1947) is an American writer and editor. Born in Detroit, the son of Martin M. and Elinor Winokur, he attended Temple University (BA, 1970) and the University of West Los Angeles (JD, 1980). He lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 7, 2021
Book of Zen quotes. Problem with Zen for me is that it can be a destructive philosophy. It tears down everything in a rather smug way. Here are some samples that I thought were interesting:
"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer."
--Gertrude Stein
"The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there."
--Robert Pirsig
"If you wish to attain an orthodox understanding of Zen, do not be deceived by others. Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles kill them right away. If you encounter the Buddha, kill him."
--Rinzai
"The great end of life is not knowledge but action."
--Thomas Henry Huxley
"Action should culminate in wisdom."
--Bhagavad Gita
"Inaction may be the highest form of action."
--Jerry Brown
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, wither thou goest."
--Ecclesiastes, 9:10
"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself."
--Shunryu Suzuki
"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."
--Marcus Aurelius
"How can you think and hit at the same time?"
--Yogi Berra
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
--Saul Bellow
"I think I think; therefore, I think I am."
--Ambrose Bierce
"Words, as is well known, are great foes of reality."
--Joseph Conrad
"We can never have enough of that which we really do not want."
--Eric Hoffer
Tom Seaver: Hey, Yogi, what time is it?
Yogi Berra: You mean now?
"Time is the only true purgatory."
--Samuel Butler
"Life is suffering."
--The Buddha
"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced."
--Soren Kierkegaard
"If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life."
--Albert Camus
"Die before ye die."
--Muhammad
"A dying man needs to die as well as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist."
--Stewart Alsop
"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I had been learning how to die."
--Leonardo Da Vinci
"Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people."
--Huang Po
"Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons."
--Chogyam Trungpa
"Nature is what she is--amoral and persistent."
--Stephen Jay Gould
"Nature is not anthropomorphic."
--Lao Tzu
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
--Frank Lloyd Wright
"My father considered a walk among the mountains the equivalent of churchgoing."
--Aldous Huxley
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
--Confucius
"Attachment to spiritual things is just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else."
--Thomas Merton
"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."
--Eric Hoffer
When a monk asked, "What is the Buddha?" Ummon (863-949 CE) replied, "A shit-wiping stick."
"A person who says, 'I'm enlightened!' probably isn't."
--Baba Ram Dass
"Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand."
--Gracian
"How dieth the wise man? As the fool."
--Ecclesiastes, 2:16
"In baseball, you don't know nothing"
--Yogi Berra
"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer."
--Gertrude Stein
"The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there."
--Robert Pirsig
"If you wish to attain an orthodox understanding of Zen, do not be deceived by others. Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles kill them right away. If you encounter the Buddha, kill him."
--Rinzai
"The great end of life is not knowledge but action."
--Thomas Henry Huxley
"Action should culminate in wisdom."
--Bhagavad Gita
"Inaction may be the highest form of action."
--Jerry Brown
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, wither thou goest."
--Ecclesiastes, 9:10
"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself."
--Shunryu Suzuki
"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."
--Marcus Aurelius
"How can you think and hit at the same time?"
--Yogi Berra
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
--Saul Bellow
"I think I think; therefore, I think I am."
--Ambrose Bierce
"Words, as is well known, are great foes of reality."
--Joseph Conrad
"We can never have enough of that which we really do not want."
--Eric Hoffer
Tom Seaver: Hey, Yogi, what time is it?
Yogi Berra: You mean now?
"Time is the only true purgatory."
--Samuel Butler
"Life is suffering."
--The Buddha
"Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced."
--Soren Kierkegaard
"If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life."
--Albert Camus
"Die before ye die."
--Muhammad
"A dying man needs to die as well as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist."
--Stewart Alsop
"While I thought that I was learning how to live, I had been learning how to die."
--Leonardo Da Vinci
"Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people."
--Huang Po
"Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons."
--Chogyam Trungpa
"Nature is what she is--amoral and persistent."
--Stephen Jay Gould
"Nature is not anthropomorphic."
--Lao Tzu
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."
--Frank Lloyd Wright
"My father considered a walk among the mountains the equivalent of churchgoing."
--Aldous Huxley
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."
--Confucius
"Attachment to spiritual things is just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else."
--Thomas Merton
"The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."
--Eric Hoffer
When a monk asked, "What is the Buddha?" Ummon (863-949 CE) replied, "A shit-wiping stick."
"A person who says, 'I'm enlightened!' probably isn't."
--Baba Ram Dass
"Sometimes it proves the highest understanding not to understand."
--Gracian
"How dieth the wise man? As the fool."
--Ecclesiastes, 2:16
"In baseball, you don't know nothing"
--Yogi Berra
July 25, 2011
A concise book of quotes meant to put you in a zen mood.Very good for people who are into quotes not very good for people interested in learning more about zen or Buddhism.
May 5, 2023
This is a silly collection of often contradictory quotations from various Zen teachers and practitioners. These are combined with occasional woefully out-of-context quotations from others (e.g. Poe, Kafka, Conrad, Solzhenitsyn, Epictetus, Wordsworth, Donne, St. Paul) that the author thought sounded Zen-like.
Yeah…Yogi Berra and Jack Kerouac attained satori. Sure.
Zen can’t be expressed in words, we’re told…in countless books. It isn’t intellectual in nature, we’re told in this one, and then informed a few pages later that it indeed is. And of course one must remember the nonsense and contradictions are key to understanding Zen. Koan you appreciate that?
Are we to believe that the semi-legendary Lao Tze said that nature isn’t “anthropomorphic”—as if that word existed in ANY language in the 6th century BCE? It’s as if the sage were commenting on a Disney cartoon. Of course that wasn’t Winokur’s translation, yet he dumped it in. Apparently it needs but to sound pithy to earn a spot on a page.
We’re exhorted repeatedly to abandon the self until Alan Watts tells us we’re “an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe”. Stroke that ego, Alan!
After a half a century of martial arts teaching and training, do I need to explain concentration and flow as “mushin”? Or can I turn a way from Zen and embrace the neurobiology of athletic training and the measured data it provides? Or is that not arcane enough?
I’m certainly jaded in my old age. I can’t help see religion as anything but affectation. Zen itself supposedly isn’t a religion, yet it certainly stinks of it.
With that I depart from this useless book and thereby kill the Buddha on the road.
July 6, 2019
3.5
"Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does." -Epictetus
"Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does." -Epictetus
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October 30, 2022Can’t really rate this one. It’s quotes and has great ideology tho!
March 26, 2025
I enjoyed it. I gained some new knowledge!
July 25, 2016
Not bad not great, another reviewer says to not get stuck in trying to learn about Zen or Buddha through this work, and I'd agree. It was fun to read, witty...?I guess, but my main issue with this book is, can their be any authorship claimed when every word comes from another writer? I didn't get that, at all! It made me laugh, made me think sometimes, but all in all , not one Id run back to. Just want to grow my library, mission accomplished.
August 2, 2020
Quite a bit of wisdom in such a small book. I’ll definitely be keeping this at hand during our COVID-19 journey.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews