Zen

Here are a few tidbits that have something to do with zen. Or not. I don’t know.

So we should live like human beings in this world. We should not try to live like cats and dogs, who have more freedom and are less selfish. Human beings should be put into a cage, a big invisible cage like religion or morality. — Shunryu Suzuki, Soto zen master

The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it’s unknown and it’s plain sailing. —  John Lennon, the Beatles

Just gimme some truth. —  John Lennon, the Beatles

Well, I don’t really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It’s like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how – what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what’s stopping it, and what’s behind what’s stopping it? So, what’s the end, you know, is my question to you. — David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. — Dogen, 13th-century Soto Zen master

Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what’s actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, “Hang the sense of it,” and keep yourself busy. — Slartibartfast, in the film “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. — John Lennon, the Beatles

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. — H.P. Lovecraft, in his short story, “The Call of Cthulhu”

I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it. — Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer

Reality is like a face reflected in the blade of a knife; its properties depend on the angle from which we view it. — Hsing Yun, Rinzai zen master

The reverse side also has a reverse side. — Japanese proverb

In an infinite universe of infinite duration, all things are possible — even God. — Me

I reject your reality and substitute my own. — Adam Savage, “Mythbusters.”

No matter what happens, fly the plane. — Anonymous flight instructor

Only summer grasses,
after the mighty warriors,
after their dreams of glory — Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet

Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests
they are about to die — Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet

Art has to be fearless. That’s the only way it can make a difference. — John Cowan, Newgrass Revival and John Cowan Band

I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey. — Mark Twain

If you’re not obsessing about something, you’re probably not into it enough. — Chris Thile, mandolin master

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something. — Robert A. Heinlein

Life’s too short to drink bad beer. — Dan Silcott, attorney and beer drinker

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. — William Shakespeare

Not all who wander are lost. — J.R.R. Tolkien

Man is the reasoning animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. — Mark Twain

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. — Neil Peart

When you pass through, no one can pin you down, no one can call you back. — Ying An, zen master

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. — Carl Sagan

I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest. — Alexandre Dumas

Cloquet hated reality but realized it was still the only place to get a good steak. — Woody Allen

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. — Philip K. Dick

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. — Abraham Lincoln

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. — John Lennon, the Beatles

Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you’re just a reflection of him? — Calvin and Hobbes, comic strip

We do, diddily-do, diddily-do, 

What we must, muddily must, muddily must, 

Until we bust, bodily bust bodily bust. — Kurt Vonnegut

To know what is right and to not do it is the worst cowardice. — Confucius

Look for Buddha outside your own mind, and Buddha becomes the devil. — Dogen, 13th-century Soto Zen master

Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. — Arthur C. Clarke

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. — Anatole France, French author and critic