Just be a witness. Don't think, 'I am sad.' Just know, 'There is sadness around me, there is joy around me. I am confronting a certain emotion or a certain mood.' But you are always far away: a watcher on the hills, and everything else is going on in the valley. This is one of the ways vipassana can be done.

~OSHO on Vipassana
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The bull never has been lost. What need is there to search? Only because of separation from my true nature, I fail to find him. In the confusion of the senses I lose even his tracks. Far from home, I see many crossroads, but which way is the right one I know not. Greed and fear, good and bad, entangle me.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
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The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning her parents discovered she was with child.
This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master. ‘Is that so?’ was all he would say.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth—that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was, ‘Is that so?’

~Zen Story
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Look at the moon in the sky, not the one in the lake.

~Rumi
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Goso said: “When you meet a Zen master on the road you cannot talk to him, you cannot face him with silence. What are you going to do?”

💎Zen Kōan💎
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Understanding the teaching, I see the footprints of the bull. Then I learn that, just as many utensils are made from one metal, so too are myriad entities made of the fabric of self. Unless I discriminate, how will I perceive the true from the untrue? Not yet having entered the gate, nevertheless I have discerned the path.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
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The master Bankei’s talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras nor indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead his words were spoken directly from his heart to the harts of his listeners.
His large audiences angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple determined to debate with Bankei.
‘Hey, Zen teacher,’ he called out. ‘Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey yon?’
‘Come up beside me and I will show you,’ said Bankei.
Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.
Bankei smiled. ‘Come over to my left side.’
The priest obeyed.
‘No,’ said Bankei, ‘we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here.’
The priest proudly stepped over to the right.
‘You see,’ observed Bankei, ‘you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen.’

~Zen Story
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When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

~Lao Tzu
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All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since awareness and ego are incompatible.

~Eckhart Tolle
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Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912) received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in saved tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. ‘It is overfull. No more will go in!’
‘Like this cup,’ Nan-in said. ‘You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? ‘

~Zen Story
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Most of us are frightened of dying because we don't know what it means to live. We don't know how to live, therefore we don't know how to die. As long as we are frightened of life we shall be frightened of death.

~Jiddu Krishnamurti
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When one hears the voice, one can sense its source. As soon as the six senses merge, the gate is entered. Wherever one enters one sees the head of the bull! This unity is like salt in water, like color in dyestuff. The slightest thing is not apart from self.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
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It is very difficult to sacrifice one's suffering. A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.

~George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
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Whatever he was asked about Zen, Master Gutei simply stuck up one finger.
He had a boy attendant whom a visitor asked, “What kind of teaching does your master give?” The boy held up one finger too. Hearing of this, Gutei cut off the boy’s finger with a knife. As the boy ran away, screaming with pain, Gutei called to him. When the boy turned his head, Gutei stuck up one finger. The boy was suddenly enlightened.
When Gutei was about to die, he said to the assembled monks, “I received this one-finger Zen from Tenryū. I’ve used it all my life but have not exhausted it.” Having said this, he entered nirvana.

💎Zen Kōan💎
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Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

~Rumi
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Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.
Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her.
One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.
Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose.
Addressing the one who had written her, she said: ‘If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now.’

~Zen Story
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Wherever you are is the entry point.

~Kabir
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