Zen means “meditation,” and it is a Buddhist school that was first recorded in China in the 7th century, and has since spread to other Eastern countries such as Korea and Japan. There are many perfect Zen phrases to incorporate as a philosophy of life.
Nowadays, it is a very popular philosophy of life also in the West, although in this part of the world it has not been fully adopted. Instead, various customs and practices of Zen have been incorporated, such as martial arts, the tea ceremony, flower art or the famous Japanese gardens, etc.
In any case, Zen wisdom, which seeks to find personal balance and wisdom beyond reason, has an enormous wealth, which you can begin to discover in these characteristic phrases.
These are 30 Zen phrases that are worth knowing.
1. “Think with your whole body.”
2. “If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where do you expect to find it?”
3. “The temptation to give up will be much stronger just before victory.”
4. “If you forget yourself you become the universe.”
5. “Worried about a single leaf you will not see the tree.”
6. “Better than a thousand empty words, one word that brings peace.”
7. “Death is not feared, if you have lived wisely.”
8. “The sound of rushing water is the great speech of the Buddha.”
9. “Hate does not end with hate, it ends with love, it is the eternal rule.”
10. “A flower falls, even though we love it; and the grass grows, even though we don’t love it.”
11. “The life of a Zen master is one continuous mistake.”
12. “Holding a grudge is like holding a hot coal with the intention of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
13. “Zen is not a kind of rage, but concentration in our daily routine.”
14. “Heaven and earth share the same root, ten thousand things and I, we are a single substance”
15. “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”
16. “There is no fear for him whose mind is not full of desires.”
17. “If you want to travel the path of the Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and understand nothing.”
18. “When you do something you must burn completely, like a good bonfire, without leaving a single trace of yourself.”
19. “We can only lose what we hold on to”
20. “Everything we are is the result of what we have thought”
21. “The more you know, the less you need.”
22. “I have lived with many Zen masters, many of them cats.”
23. “Choose to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to stand out among fools.”
24. “Peace comes from within, don’t look for it outside.”
25. “There are three things that cannot be hidden for long: The sun, the moon and the truth.”
26. “If you add a little to a little, and you do it often, soon a little will become a lot.”
27. “Walk like you’re kissing the ground with your feet.”
28. “The greatest victory is the one you win over yourself.”
29. “To live a detached life, one must not feel ownership of anything in the midst of abundance.”
30. “Do not overestimate what you have received, nor envy others, he who envies has no peace.”