Explore a collection of the most beloved and motivational quotes and sayings about Zen. Share these powerful messages with your loved ones on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or on your personal blog, and inspire the world with their wisdom. We've compiled the Top 100 Zen Quotes and Sayings from 50 influential authors, including Charlotte Joko Beck,Thich Thien-An,Frederick Lenz,Alan Watts,D.t. Suzuki, for you to enjoy and share.

Living Zen is nothing special: life as it is. Zen is life itself, nothing added. By Charlotte Joko Beck Zen Living Special Life Added

The beauty of Zen is found in simplicity and tranquility, in a sense of the all-embracing harmony of things. By Thich Thien-An Zen Tranquility Things Beauty Found

Zen is a study. It's a discipline. It involves the active use of will to make things happen or not happen. These are the secrets of power. By Frederick Lenz Zen Study Happen Discipline Power

In Zen the emphasis is on meditation and developing your body, mind and spirit to find inner peace, strength, clarity and enlightenment. By Frederick Lenz Strength Zen Body Mind Peace

Zen is really extraordinarily simple as long as one doesn't try to be cute about it or beat around the bush! Zen is simply the sensation and the clear understanding ... that there is behind the multiplicity of events and creatures in this universe simply one energy and it appears as you, and everything is it. The practice of Zen is to understand that one energy so as to feel it in your bones. By Alan Watts Zen Bush Extraordinarily Simple Long

Zen is the spirit of a man. Zen believes in his inner purity and goodness. Whatever is superadded or violently torn away, injures the wholesomeness of the spirit. Zen, therefore, is emphatically against all religious conventionalism. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Man Spirit Goodness Injures

Zen is mind-less activity, that is, Mind-ful activity, and it may often be advisable to emphasize the mind, and say, Take care of the thoughts and the actions will take care of themselves. By Reginald Horace Blyth Activity Care Mindful Zen Mind

Zen values the simple, concrete, living facts of everyday direct personal experience. By James H. Austin Concrete Zen Simple Living Experience

Zen is the way of complete self-realization; a living human being who follows the way of Zen can attain satori and then live a new life as a Buddha. By Zenkei Shibayama Buddha Zen Selfrealization Complete Living

When we seek from Zen (or from any spiritual path) the fulfillment of our fantasies, we separate from the earth and sky, from our loved ones, from our aching backs and hearts, from the very soles of our feet. Such fantasies insulate us for a time; yet in ten thousand ways reality intrudes, and our lives become anxious scurrying, quiet desperation, confusing melodrama. By Charlotte Joko Beck Zen Path Sky Hearts Feet

Zen is a journey of exploration and a way of living that, in and of itself, does not belong to any one religion or tradition. It is about experiencing life in the here and now and about removing the dualistic distinctions between "I" and "you" between "subject" and "objective", between our spiritual and our ordinary, everyday activities. By Chris Prentiss Zen Tradition Journey Exploration Living

Zazen is seated meditation-the opposite of contemplation-the emptying of the mind of all thoughts in order simply to be. In the midst of all evil, not a thought is aroused in the mind-this is called za. Seeing into one's Self-nature, not being moved at all-this is called Zen. By Huineng Zazen Seated Meditationthe Opposite Contemplationthe

Zen is not, in my view, philosophy or mysticism. It is simply a practice of readjustment of nervous activity. That is, it restores the distorted nervous system to its normal functioning. By Katsuki Sekida Zen View Philosophy Mysticism Nervous

I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of this desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring woods:-in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No worldly discussion is necessary, or any explanation. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Hand Desk Window Woods

In Zen you are learning how to make new realities, to build things inside your mind. By Frederick Lenz Zen Realities Mind Learning Make

The practice of Zen is to eat, breathe, cook, carry water, and scrub the toilet - to infuse every act of body, speech, and mind - with mindfulness, to illuminate every leaf and pebble, every heap of garbage, every path that leads to our mind's return home. By Nhat Hanh Breathe Cook Speech Zen Mind

When you notice your world exactly as it is - free from judgment and with detachment from anticipated outcomes - that is Zen. By Dan Tricarico Zen Free Outcomes Notice World

Zen culture invites us to experience reality without the intervening distractions of intellect, categories, analysis. By Tom Hoover Categories Analysis Zen Intellect Culture

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. By Alan W. Watts Zen Time Liberation Instant Reality

So what I liked about Zen was that it never goes off into the realm of imagination land, or if it does occasionally, the good teachers will openly address it specifically as only imagination. Both of my teachers were very good at that. By Brad Warner Zen Imagination Land Occasionally Good

As a matter of face, Zen is at present most fashionable in America among those who are least concerned with moral discipline. Zen has, indeed, become for us a symbol of moral revolt. It is true, the Zen-man's contempt for conventional and formalistic social custom is a healthy phenomenon, but it is healthy only because it presupposes a spiritual liberty based on freedom from passion, egotism and self-delusion. A pseudo-Zen attitude which seeks to justify a complete moral collapse with a few rationalizations based on the Zen Masters is only another form of bourgeois self-deception. It is not an expression of healthy revolt, but only another aspect of the same lifeless and inert conventionalism against which it appears to be protesting. By Thomas Merton America Zen Moral Face Discipline

Zen is a kind of unlearning. It teaches you how to drop that which you have learned, how to become unskillful again, how to become a child again, how to start existing without mind again, how to be here without any mind. By Rajneesh Zen Unlearning Kind Mind Learned

Zen wants us to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature. This is because Zen has come to the definite conclusion that the ordinary logical process of reasoning is powerless to give final satisfaction to our deepest spiritual needs. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Nature Acquire Point View

In the study of Zen you can learn how to strengthen and clarify your finite mind. Your finite mind is like a muscle; when exercised it becomes stronger. By Frederick Lenz Zen Finite Mind Study Learn

In Zen we do everything perfectly. We feel that our outer actions are a reflection of our inner state. We call it mindfulness. By Frederick Lenz Zen Perfectly State Mindfulness Feel

In Zen, actions speak louder than words. Doing is more important than knowing, and knowledge which cannot be translated into action is of little worth. By Thich Thien-An Zen Words Speak Louder Knowing

One master defines Zen as the art of feeling the polar star in the southern sky. Truth can be reached only through the comprehension of opposites. By Okakura Kakuzo Zen Sky Master Defines Art

In Zen you practice zazen, mindfulness and other forms of introspection to find out who you are and what you want, to balance your spirit, develop willpower, increase your sense of humor and gain wisdom. By Frederick Lenz Zen Zazen Mindfulness Spirit Develop

Zen, per se, is not just an art, it's not just a religion, it's a realisation. By Gene Clark Zen Art Religion Realisation

Zen, like life, defies exact definition, but its essence is the experience, moment by moment, of our own existence a natural, spontaneous encounter, unclouded by the suppositions and expectations that come between us and reality. It is, if you like, a paring down of life until we see it as it really is, free from our illusions; it is merely a divestment of ourselves until we recognize our own true nature. By David Fontana Zen Moment Defies Definition Experience

Zen enriches no one. There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while in the place where it is thought to be. But they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the "nothing," the "no-body" that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey. By Thomas Merton Enriches Zen Found Body Nobody

Zen provides a structure that supports our exploring the practice and the teachings for ourselves. By Jean Smith Zen Structure Supports Exploring Practice

Zen aims at freedom but its practice is disciplined. By Gary Snyder Zen Disciplined Aims Freedom Practice

Finally I went over to an old cook in the doorway of the kitchen and asked him "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?" (Bodhidharma was the Indian who brought Buddhism eastward to China.) "I don't care," said the old cook, with lidded eyes, and I told Japhy and he said, "Perfect answer, absolutely perfect. Now you know what I mean by Zen. By Jack Kerouac West Bodhidharma Finally Cook Doorway

Once upon a time,there was a Zen signat every small railway crossing in AmericaStop. Look. And listen. By Dick Allen Zen Americastop Timethere Signat Small

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand ; I take a book from the other side of the desk ; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighbouring wood: - in all these I am practising Zen, I am living Zen. No wordy discussions is necessary, nor any explanation. I do not know why - and there is no need of explaining, but when the sun rises the whole world dances with joy and everybody's heart is filled with bliss. If Zen is at all conceivable, it must be taken hold of here. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Flows Idea Catch Life

Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance - embracing all opposites. By Taisen Deshimaru Silent Peaceful Unagitated State Zen

In Zen we strive to bring both the mind and the body into perfect combination, so that there is no intrinsic difference between them. By Frederick Lenz Zen Combination Strive Bring Mind

A person who undertakes the study of Zen and learns concentration and meditation is like a gymnast. You become a gymnast of the mind. By Frederick Lenz Zen Gymnast Person Undertakes Study

Nearly all samurai practice Zen - it is the Way of Enlightenment." "Possibly the light of Zen is so strong that it has blinded me to its virtue." Yoshitoki smiled. "It is very good discipline for the mind, as the martial arts are for the body." Kenmotsu looked very smug as he said this. "I do Zazen twice a week." "I think it will do no-one any harm, though personally I find it more pleasant to think than to empty my mind of thought. By Erik Christian Haugaard Enlightenment Zen Samurai Practice Possibly

Zen is to religion what a Japanese "rock garden" is to a garden. Zen knows no god, no afterlife, no good and no evil, as the rock-garden knows no flowers, herbs or shrubs. It has no doctrine or holy writ: its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolise now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. When a disciple asks "What is Zen?", the master's traditional answer is "Three pounds of flax" or "A decaying noodle" or "A toilet stick" or a whack on the pupil's head. By Arthur Koestler Garden Japanese Zen Rock Religion

Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. By Shunryu Suzuki Zen Excitement Routine Kind Concentration

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do so in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Superadded Basic Idea Touch

Old Zen is the way of nothingness, the way of having a good time. By Frederick Lenz Zen Nothingness Time Good

Honestly.I don't understand Zen.It seems if you don't answer properly,or if you are rude,people get enlightened. By Jerry Pinto Honestlyi Enlightened Understand Zenit Answer

There is really only one Zen Master ... and that's yourself. By Frederick Lenz Master Zen

Zen taught me how to pay attention, how to delve, how to question and enter, how to stay with or at least want to try to stay with whatever is going on. By Jane Hirshfield Stay Zen Attention Delve Enter

Zen is the complete absence of belief. Zen is the complete lack of authority. By Brad Warner Zen Belief Complete Absence Authority

The central feature of the practice of meditation and hard work known as Zen is that, as Matthiessen says, it "has no patience with mysticism, far less the occult." Nor does it have any time with moralism, the prescriptions or distortions we would impose on the world, obscuring it from our view. It asks, it insists rather, that we take this moment for what it is, undistracted, and not cloud it with needless worries of what might have been or fantasies of what might come to be. It is, essentially, a training in the real ... "the Universe itself is the scripture of Zen." Pico Iyer from introduction. By Peter Matthiessen Matthiessen Mysticism Occult Zen Central

Zen is really just a reminder to stay alive and to be awake. We tend to daydream all the time, speculating about the future and dwelling on the past. Zen practice is about appreciating your life in this moment. If you are truly aware of five minutes a day, then you are doing pretty well. We are beset by both the future and the past, and there is no reality apart from the here and now. By Peter Matthiessen Zen Awake Past Reminder Stay

How hard, then, and yet how easy it is to understand Zen! Hard because to understand it is not to understand it; easy because not to understand it is to understand it. By D.t. Suzuki Understand Zen Hard Easy

The whole point of Zen is to suspend the rules we have superimposed on things and to see the world as it is By Alan Watts Zen Point Suspend Rules Superimposed

To practice Zen means to realize one's existence in the beauty and clarity of this present moment, rather than letting life unravel in useless daydreaming of the past and future. By John Daishin Buksbazen Zen Moment Future Practice Realize

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. By Alan Watts Zen Begins Bad Idea Life

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry - what am I? - is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything. By Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind Practice Beginner Step

50 Zen, read shit.... BECOME MASTER! By Deyth Banger Zen Read Shit Master

Let's skip the Zen shit and just get back to the killing each other part. By Cassandra Gannon Zen Part Skip Shit Back

Zen was an attempt to get back to the purest teachings of the Buddha -enlightenment without strings. By Frederick Lenz Buddha Zen Enlightenment Strings Attempt

Zen is the "spirit of the valley," not the mountaintop. By Robert M. Pirsig Zen Spirit Valley Mountaintop

The path of Zen is not easy. It's wonderful. It's beautiful beyond compare. You will experience more ecstasy and beauty than most people will in a thousand lifetimes. By Frederick Lenz Zen Easy Path Wonderful Compare

When mind and action are separate, zen is lost. We keep the two in sync by paying attention. By Philip Toshio Sudo Separate Zen Lost Mind Action

1. A Cup of Tea Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), recieved a university professor who came to inqure about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer 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 up? By Nyogen Senzaki Nanin Cup Tea Zen Japanese

The aim of Zen training is to attain the state of consciousness which occurs when the individual ego is emptied of itself and becomes identified with the infinite reality of all things. By Anne Bancroft Zen Things Aim Training Attain

Now when I speak about Zen, I have a problem, in the sense that the Zen of today has lost the essence, in my estimation, of what I call "old Zen." By Frederick Lenz Zen Problem Essence Estimation Call

Zen is the only religion in the world that teaches sudden enlightenment. It says that enlightenment takes no time, it can happen in a single, split second. By Rajneesh Zen Enlightenment Religion World Teaches

Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen. By Ruth Ozeki Notthinking Nonthinking Zazen Essential Art

What I term Zen, old Zen, the original face of Zen, new Zen, pure Zen, or Tantric Zen is - Zen in its essence. By Frederick Lenz Zen Tantric Pure Essence Term

The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character. By Yamada Koun Zen Character Purpose Perfection

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness. By Shunryu Suzuki Zen Practice Study Forget Previous

I suppose what I like about Zen is that the teachers are constantly questioning your insight and challenging it, looking for sloppiness or laziness in it, and ways you can go past that. By David O. Russell Zen Suppose Teachers Constantly Questioning

Zen replaces all objects of belief with one single thing: reality itself. We believe only in this universe. We don't believe in the afterlife. We don't believe in the sovereignty of nations. We don't believe in money or power or fame. We don't believe in our idols. We don't believe in our positions or our possessions. We don't believe we can be insulted, or that our honor or the honor of our family, our nation or our faith can be offended. We don't believe in Buddha. We just believe in reality. Just this. By Brad Warner Zen Thing Replaces Objects Belief

I have my own way to walk and for some reason or other Zen is right in the middle of it wherever I go. So there it is, with all its beautiful purposelessness, and it has become very familiar to me though I do not know "what it is." Or even if it is an "it." Not to be foolish and multiply words, I'll say simply that it seems to me that Zen is the very atmosphere of the Gospels, and the Gospels are bursting with it. It is the proper climate for any monk, no matter what kind of monk he may be. If I could not breathe Zen I would probably die of spiritual asphyxiation. By Thomas Merton Zen Gospels Walk Reason Middle

Zen is the path that focuses the most upon meditation. It is almost exclusively a path of meditation. By Frederick Lenz Meditation Zen Path Focuses Exclusively

Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies, By D.t. Suzuki Buddhism Spirit Zen Philosophies Professes

Zen is the most scientific method to inquire into your consciousness. It takes you beyond mind into a space called no-mind. No self, but pure awareness, and you have a taste of eternity and immortality. By Rajneesh Zen Consciousness Scientific Method Inquire

Philosophy is speculation, Zen is participation. Participate in the night leaving, participate in the evening coming, participate in the stars and participate in the clouds; make participation your lifestyle and the whole existence becomes such a joy, such an ecstasy. You could not have dreamed of a better universe. By Rajneesh Zen Participate Philosophy Speculation Participation

I guess Zen is a day like this when you are part of the air and remember things By Stephen Chbosky Zen Things Guess Day Part

Zen is the purest of meditations: just sit silently, doing nothing. By Osho Zen Meditations Silently Purest Sit

Zen is nothing to get excited about. By Shunryu Suzuki Zen Excited

People who practice Zen correctly are not spaced-out or unrealistic. They are balanced and grounded. By Frederick Lenz Zen People Unrealistic Practice Correctly

Most writers agree on the fact that Zen is not to be understood but to be lived; and far from being incompatible with the requirements of everyday life, Zen confers on it its own full revealing value. By Robert Linssen Zen Lived Life Writers Agree

The study of Zen is a retraining. It is a series of new ways, not just one way, to learn to use your mind more efficiently. By Frederick Lenz Zen Retraining Study Efficiently Series

Zen does not ask you to believe in anything you cannot confirm for yourself. It does not ask you to memorize any sacred words. It does not require you to worship any particular thing or revere any particular person. It does not offer any rules to obey. It does not give you any hierarchy of learned men whose profound teachings you must follow to the letter. It does not ask you to conform any code of dress. It does not ask you to allow anyone else to choose what is right for you and what is wrong. Zen is complete absence of belief. Zen is the complete lack of authority. Zen tears away every false refuge in which you might hide from the truth and forces you to sit naked before what is real. That's real refuge. By Brad Warner Zen Confirm Complete Refuge Real

It is not good to talk about Zen, because Zen is nothingness ... If you talk about it, you are always lying, and if you don't talk about it, no one knows it is there. By Robert M. Pirsig Zen Talk Nothingness Good Lying

Zen is very easy! It's like touching your nose when you wash your face in the morning! By Seungsahn Zen Easy Morning Touching Nose

Zen approaches it from the practical side of life-that is, to work out Enlightenment in life itself. By D.t. Suzuki Enlightenment Zen Approaches Practical Side

I was very attracted to the way that Zen did not go into the imagination land. And now I've forgotten what your first question was and how we were going to tie this together. By Brad Warner Zen Land Attracted Imagination Forgotten

The emphasis is on meditation in Tantric Zen. The experience of meditation in formal practice, zazen, where you're sitting down and meditating and concentrating. By Frederick Lenz Zen Tantric Meditation Zazen Emphasis

Zen is a very quick path. Zen is the path of meditation. The word Zen means emptiness or fullness, meditation. Meditation is the quickest path to enlightenment. By Frederick Lenz Zen Path Meditation Quick Fullness

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. By Robert M. Pirsig Zen Find Tops Mountains Bring

wisdom? As the Zen texts explain, "To live in trusting By Jack Kornfield Wisdom Zen Explain Trusting Texts

Zen is completely free from the fetters of old dogmas, dead creeds, and conventions of stereotyped past, that check the development of a religious faith and prevent the discovery of a new truth. Zen needs no Inquisition. It never compelled nor will compel the compromise of a Galileo or a Descartes. No excommunication of a Spinoza or the burning of a Bruno is possible for Zen. By Kaiten Nukariya Zen Dogmas Dead Creeds Past

Facts of experience are valued in Zen more than representations, symbols, and concepts-that is to say, substance is everything in Zen and form nothing. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Symbols Facts Representations Substance

Essays in Zen Buddhism By Alan W. Watts Buddhism Zen Essays

The object of Zen is not to kill all feelings and become anesthetized to pain and fear. The object of Zen is to free us to scream loudly and fully when it is time to scream. By Francis Harold Cook Zen Object Fear Kill Feelings

Zen is poetry; poetry is Zen. By Reginald Horace Blyth Zen Poetry

Zen purposes to discipline the mind itself, to make it its own master, through an insight into its proper nature. This getting into the real nature of one's own mind or soul is the fundamental object of Zen Buddhism. Zen, therefore, is more than meditation and Dhyana in its ordinary sense. The discipline of Zen consists in opening the mental eye in order to look into the very reason of existence. By D.t. Suzuki Zen Master Mind Nature Purposes

Zen's greatest contribution is to give you an alternative to the serious man. The serious man has made the world, the serious man has made all the religions. He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serious man. Zen has dropped out of the serious world. It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children. By Rajneesh Man World Zen Made Greatest

It is in Zen practice that you gain power, balance and wisdom. The battles that you fight are within your own mind. That is where the real victories and defeats are. By Frederick Lenz Zen Power Balance Wisdom Practice

Zen is not about eliminating thoughts but illuminating them. By Gerald May Zen Eliminating Thoughts Illuminating