“I wanted to win. No, that’s not right. I simply didn’t want to lose. And”
― Shoe Dog
― Shoe Dog
“In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. You will have something remaining which is not completely burned out. Zen activity is activity which is completely burned out, with nothing remaining but ashes.”
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“When we sit in the cross-legged posture, we resume our fundamental activity of creation. There are perhaps three kinds of creation. The first is to be aware of ourselves after we finish zazen. When we sit we are nothing, we do not even realize what we are; we just sit. But when we stand up, we are there! That is the first step in creation. When you are there, everything else is there; everything is created all at once. When we emerge from nothing, when everything emerges from nothing, we see it all as a fresh new creation. This is nonattachment. The second kind of creation is when you act, or produce or prepare something like food or tea. The third kind is to create something within yourself, such as education, or culture, or art, or some system for our society. So there are three kinds of creation. But if you forget the first, the most important one, the other two will be like children who have lost their parents; their creation will mean nothing. Usually”
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
― Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. —Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”
― Shoe Dog
― Shoe Dog
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