Zen wisdom has much to say about human efficiency, creativity, and realizing our potential as well. It teaches us how we can experience life by applying ourselves fully in each moment. Life influenced by Zen becomes more conscious and we become more calm and peaceful. Therefore, we are so inspired to share with you these zen quotes we have selected to guide you on your spiritual path. We hope these Zen quotes will help you realize what it means to live fully in each moment.
So, here they are 60 zen quotes that will inspire your spiritual journey!
60 Zen Quotes
#1
Zen is an effort to become alert and awake.
– Osho
#2
When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
– Lao Tzu
#3
Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.
– D.T. Suzuki
#4
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
– Confucius
#5
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.
– Plato
#6
If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing.
– Dogen
#7
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
– D.T. Suzuki
#8
To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.
– Bodhidharma
#9
When we start to feel anxious or depressed, instead of asking, “What do I need to get to be happy?” The question becomes, “What am I doing to disturb the inner peace that I already have?”.
– D.T. Suzuki
#10
The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.
– Koun Yamada
#11
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
– Dogen
#12
You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.
– Pema Chödrön
#13
Wherever you are, it’s the place you need to be.
– Maxime Lagacé
#14
Let go. Let Be. See through everything and be free, complete, luminous, at home – at ease.
– Lama Surya Das
#15
The true purpose [of Zen] is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
– Shunryu Suzuki
#16
Suffering is when we resist the moment.
– Kamal Ravikant
#17
It’s beautiful to be alone. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. It means the mind is not influenced and contaminated by society.
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
#18
Rest and be kind, you don’t have to prove anything.
– Jack Kerouac
#19
Zen is not a religion. There is no room for a cult. There is no dependence on a teacher. There is only learning how to use your own mind and making it strong.
– Frederick Lenz
#20
Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.
– Pema Chödrön
#21
Zen teaches that if we can open up to the inevitability of our demise, we can begin to transform and lighten up about it.
– Allen Klein
#22
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
– Eric Hoffer
#23
Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality.
– Alan Watts
#24
We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
#25
Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.
– Confucius
#26
Zen is a path of liberation. It liberates you. It is freedom from the first step to the last. You are not required to follow any rules; you are required to find out your own rules and your own life in the light of awareness.
– Osho
#27
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
– Bruce Lee
#28
Silence is the language of Om. We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.
– Amit Ray
#29
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
– Shunryu Suzuki
#30
If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.
– Lao Tzu
#31
The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.
– Shunryu Suzuki
#32
Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.
– Joko Beck
#33
Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realization.
– Gene Clark
#34
Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention.
– Robert Greene
#35
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
– Albert Einstein
#36
Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment.
– John Bradshaw
#37
The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
– Robert M. Pirsig
#38
I don’t mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom.
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
#39
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
– Lao Tzu
#40
The less you try to impress, the more peaceful you can be.
– Maxime Lagacé
#41
Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.
– Bodhidharma
#42
Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.
– Dogen
#43
Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.
– Rumi
#44
Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes, You must not be attached to the coming or the going.
– Seungsahn
#45
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
– Confucius
#46
Wherever you are, be there totally.
– Eckhart Tolle
#47
These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.
– Najwa Zebian
#48
One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them.
– Masanobu Fukuoka
#49
Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions.
– Mark Richardson
#50
Little people overwhelmed by emotions. Zen people are calm and detached.
– Maxime Lagacé
#51
Happiness only comes when you let go of who you think you are. If you think you’re wealthy and powerful and noble and truthful or horrible and demonic, whatever it may be, it’s all a waste of time.
– Frederick Lenz
#52
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
– Alan Watts
#53
Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.
– Bodhidharma
#54
Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are.
– Karen Maezen Miller
#55
A man is great not because he hasn’t failed; a man is great because failure hasn’t stopped him.
– Confucius
#56
The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished.
– Ming-Dao Deng
#57
Little people reject reality which brings confusion. Zen people accept reality which brings understanding.
– Maxime Lagacé
#58
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
– Shunryu Suzuki
#59
If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
– Rabindranath Tagore
#60
Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.
– Zen Proverb