30 Zen Proverbs
1.
A beautiful woman who is pleasing to men is good only for frightening fish when she falls into the water.2.
Be master of mind rather than mastered by mind.3.
Better to see the face than to hear the name.4.
Better to sit all night than to go to bed with a dragon.5.
Better to struggle with a sick jackass than carry the wood by yourself.6.
Chop wood, carry water.7.
Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.8.
From the withered tree, a flower blooms.9.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.10.
If you want a certain thing, you must first be a certain person. Once you are that certain person, obtaining that certain thing will no longer be a concern of yours.11.
In studying the way, realizing it is hard; once you have realized it, preserving it is hard. When you can preserve it, putting it into practice is hard.12.
It takes a wise man to learn from his mistakes, but an even wiser man to learn from others.13.
Knock on the sky and Listen to the sound.14.
Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung.15.
Let go over a cliff, die completely, and then come back to life -- after that you cannot be deceived.16.
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.17.
One day a student asked Taiga, "What is the most difficult part of painting?" Taiga answered, "The part of the paper where nothing is painted is the most difficult."18.
Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.19.
Sit, walk, or run, but don't wobble.20.
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.