Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Zen

The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Sir John Templeton: “My ethical principle in the first place was: ‘Where could I use my talents that God gave me to help the most people?’”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it every morning for a few minutes or for half an hour and then forget all about it. It has to become like your heartbeat. You have to sit in it, you have to walk in it. Yes, you have even to sleep in it.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

The mind that does not understand is the Buddha. There is no other.
Buddhist Teaching

Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one’s own rules—this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.
D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher

Half a century ago, the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote that happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy – it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: “I thought to myself, well if that’s the case and if what I’m scared of isn’t death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I’ve got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn’t done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference”.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Zen opens a man’s eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of pace in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden
D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher

Through learning we grow, becoming more than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because it results in the transformation of what we were before, a setting aside of the old self in favor of a more complex one.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

The life of Zen begins, therefore, in a disillusion with the pursuit of goals which do not really exist the good without the bad, the gratification of a self which is no more than an idea, and the morrow which never comes.
Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author

If we agree that the bottom line of life is happiness, not success, then it makes perfect sense to say that it is the journey that counts, not reaching the destination.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
Shunryu Suzuki (1904–71) Zen Buddhist Monk, Author

You become that which you think you are. Or, it is not that you become it, but that the idea gets very deeply rooted – and that’s what all conditioning is.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

In the words of Max DePree: “Management has a lot to do with answers. But leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?’”
Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman

Enjoyment, on the other hand, is not always pleasant, and it can be very stressful at times. A mountain climber, for example, may be close to freezing, utterly exhausted, and in danger of falling into a bottomless crevasse, yet he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Sipping a pina colada under a palm tree at the edge of the turquoise ocean is idyllic, but it just doesn’t compare to the exhilaration he feels on the windswept ridge.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

For Zen, man is the goal; man is the end unto himself. God is not something above humanity, God is something hidden within humanity. Man is carrying God in himself as a potentiality.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

The ultimate Path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing.
Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk

Frozen in fear, you avoid responsibility because you think your experience is beyond your control. This stance keeps you from making decisions, solving problems, or going after what you want in life.
David Emerald

Zen is the game of insight, the game of discovering who you are beneath the social masks.
Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) British Japanologist, Zen Author

Perhaps the most distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people, and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Zen lives in the present. The Whole teaching is: how to be in the present; how to get out of the past which is no more and how not to get involved in the future which is not yet, and just to be rooted, centered, in that which is.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

Zen in it’s 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 (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher

However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%—when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

Zen is all-inclusive. It never denies, it never says no to anything; it accepts everything and transforms it into a higher reality.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

To remain caught up in ideas and words about Zen is, as the old masters say, to stink of Zen.
Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author

This is the Zen approach: nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural.
Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher

Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.
Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author

A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity…one must first embark on the formidable journey of self-discovery in order to create a vision with authentic soul.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist

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