Moment of Zen

“Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or discover something that is true.”
– William Inge

Moment of Zen

“We end, I think, at what might be called the standard paradox of the 20th century: our tools are better than we are, and grow faster that we do. They suffice to crack the atom, to command the tides. But they do not suffice for the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it.”
– Aldo Leopold

Moment of Zen

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
– Lyndon B. Johnson

Moment of Zen

“We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.”
– Robert Pirsig
– Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Hope is a good thing

This article can also be read at thelittleendian.com.

Hope is a good thing–maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies.–Stephen King (The Shawshank Redemption)

Just finished watching The Shawshank Redemption, for perhaps the 4th or 5th time. What struck me this time? Stephen King can really invent good and evil at the same time. More importantly however, what stayed with me was the quote about Hope.

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Moment of Zen

“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.”
– Buddha

Moment of Zen

“Time spent upside down every day is one of the best things you could possibly do for yourself.”
– Erich Schiffmann

Moment of Zen

“It has been one of the great errors of our time to think that by thinking about thinking, and then talking about it, we could possibly straighten out and tidy up our minds. There is no delusion more damaging that to get the idea in your head that you understand the functioning of your own brain. Once you acquire such a notion, you run the danger of moving in to take charge, guiding your thoughts, shepherding your mind from place to place. Controlling it, making lists of regulations. The human mind is not meant to be governed, certainly not by any book of rules yet written; it is supposed to run itself, and we are obliged to follow it along, trying to keep up with it as best we can. It is all very well to be aware of your awareness, even proud of it, but never try to operate it. You are not up to the job.”

Lewis Thomas, “The Attic of the Brain”

Moment of Zen

“Peace is only possible in poverty.”

D.T.Suzuki, 1949

Moment of Zen

Nowhere!
Not in the sky,
Nor in the midst of the sea,
Nor deep in the mountains,
Can you hide from your own mischief.

Nowhere!
Not in the sky,
Nor in the midst of the ocean,
Nor deep in the mountains,
Can you hide from your own death.
– Buddha