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Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy QUOTES

Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy QUOTES

1 " Zhaozhou often quoted this saying by Sengcan: “The great way is not difficult if you just don’t pick and choose. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

2 " You need courage to find out what you really want in life, and what you want might be dangerous. But life is dangerous anyway, and there is a beauty in becoming more and more fully who you are, in paying attention to, as well as being pulled along by, your red thread. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

3 " It’s true though, that the impulse to give freely to the world seems to be at the bottom of the well of human intentions where the purest and clearest water arises. To be able to offer back what the world has given you, but shaped a little by your touch—that makes a true life. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

4 " live your way into the answer.1 —RAINER MARIA RILKE’S ADVICE TO A YOUNG POET "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

5 " Often what you might think of as yourself is a list of problems and achievements, particularly problems. Without a problem, you wouldn’t need anything. You could lose your citizenship in the society of people who need things. If you have a problem, you need closure, or revenge, or to understand your mother, or to have your partner meet your needs. Yet most of these things are extremely unlikely to occur. And not one of these things would bring happiness if it did occur. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

6 " For a long time I felt cut off from the world, a billiard ball in a Cartesian space, and a gulf separated me from the fish, animals, trees, and people—my mind was not content or whole. There were symptoms, such as having more thoughts than I could possibly use at any given moment, and clumsiness with people, but probably the main symptom was of being shut out of the magic in things. I worried at the problem, studying animals and plants and noticing that all the steps I took did not help. Then one day the gap wasn’t there anymore. After the gap disappeared, I could let a situation tell me what it was about, let people reveal themselves to me, without finding a problem. Sometimes wholeness is just given. It has to be given actually, because effort leads to effort, not to wholeness. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

7 " If you are busy thinking that you should be kind, you might miss the reality that kindness is already present, in you. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

8 " We might believe that we are our thoughts and feelings, but our thoughts and feelings are objects in the world, just like tables and mirrors. We might have to negotiate with them at any time. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

9 " When a problem is intractable and you cannot conceive of a solution to it, you will just have to live through it without a neat story about how it is to be solved. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

10 " Since joy might be hiding anywhere, you would be willing to look with curiosity at sadness or fear, just in case. "

― , Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy