However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

~Gautama Buddha
@GatelessGate

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

~George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
@GatelessGate

This struggle is over; gain and loss are assimilated. I sing the song of the village woodsman, and play the tunes of the children. Astride the bull, I observe the clouds above. Onward I go, no matter who may wish to call me back.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
@GatelessGate

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

~Heraclitus
@GatelessGate

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

~Jiddu Krishnamurti
@GatelessGate

All is one law, not two. We only make the bull a temporary subject. It is as the relation of rabbit and trap, of fish and net. It is as gold and dross, or the moon emerging from a cloud. One path of clear light travels on throughout endless time.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
@GatelessGate

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly — you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath

~Kabir
@GatelessGate

Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.

~Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa
@GatelessGate

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

~Lao Tzu
@GatelessGate

If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him

~Linji Yixuan
@GatelessGate

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.

~Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
@GatelessGate

In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.

~Mahavira
@GatelessGate

Mediocrity is gone. Mind is clear of limitation. I seek no state of enlightenment. Neither do I remain where no enlightenment exists. Since I linger in neither condition, eyes cannot see me. If hundreds of birds strew my path with flowers, such praise would be meaningless.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
@GatelessGate

The journey itself is my home.

~Matsuo Bash
@GatelessGate

My religion is to live - and die - without regret.

~Milarepa
@GatelessGate

All philosophies are mental fabrications. There has never been a single doctrine by which one could enter the true essence of things.

~Nagarjuna
@GatelessGate

It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.

~Nisargadatta Maharaj
@GatelessGate

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

~Omar Khayyam
@GatelessGate

From the beginning, truth is clear. Poised in silence, I observe the forms of integration and disintegration. One who is not attached to "form" need not be "reformed." The water is emerald, the mountain is indigo, and I see that which is creating and that which is destroying.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
@GatelessGate

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master.

Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was. When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger.
"You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!"

But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved.
"And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

~Zen Story
@GatelessGate

Inside my gate, a thousand sages do not know me. The beauty of my garden is invisible. Why should one search for the footprints of the patriarchs? I go to the market place with my wine bottle and return home with my staff. I visit the wineshop and the market, and everyone I look upon becomes enlightened.

~The Ten Bulls of Zen
@GatelessGate