Various Western, Taoist, and Buddhist Proverbs and Stories

· A monk asked Chao-chou, “I have just entered the monastery: please give me some guidance.” Chao-chou said, “Have you eaten your rice gruel?” The monk said, “Yes, I have eaten.” Chao-chou said, “Then go wash your bowl.”

· We shape clay into a pot but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
-Tao Te Cing

· If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark. -St. John of the Cross

· A monk asked Master Haryo, “What is the way?” Haryo said, “An open-eyed man falling into the well.”

· If you wish to drown, don’t torture yourself with shallow water. -Bulgarian proverb

· The raindrops pattter on the basho leaf, but these are not tears of grief; this is only the anguish of him who is listening to them.

· If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
-Dogen

· Two monks were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around the bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. “Come on, girl,” said the first monk. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. The second monk did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he said. “It is dangerous. Why did you do that?” “I left the girl there,” the first monk said. “Are you still carrying her?”

· The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely. -Carl Jung

· Fundamentally the marksman aims at himself.

· Ring the bells that still can ring. forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen

· Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself. -Erich Fromm

· The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there. -Yasutani Roshi

· The secret sits. We dance around in a ring and suppose, But the secret sits in the middle and knows. -Robert Frost

· Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. -Basho

· The true way goes over a rope which is not streched at any great height but just above the ground. It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon.
-Franz Kafka

· Water which is to pure has no fish. -Ts’ai Ken T’an

· That stone Buddah deserves all the birdshit it gets. I wave my skinny arms like a tall flower in the wind. -Ikkyu

· Another time I saw a child coming toward me holding a lighted torch in his hand. “Where have you brought the light from?” I asked him. He immediately blew it out and said to me, “O Hasan, tell me where it is gone, and I will tell you whence I fetched it.”
-Hasan Basri

· There is nothign either good or bad but thinking makes it so. -Shakespeare

· To set what you like against what you dislike---this is the disease of the mind.
-Seng T’san

· One day Chao-chou fell down in the snow, and called out, “Help me up! Help me up!”
A monk came and lay down beside him. Chao-chou got up and went away.

· One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak. -G.K. Chesterton

· It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

· Each molecule preaches perfect law, Each moment chants true sutra: The most fleeting thought is timeless, A single hair’s enough to stir the sea. -Shutaku

· When you meet a master swordsman, show him your sword. When you meet a man who is not a poet, do not show him your poem. -Lin Chi

· “But the emporer has nothing on at all!” cried the little child. -Hans Christian Andersen

· If you meet on the way a man who knows, don’t speak a word, don’t keep silent!

· The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is one I would like to talk to. -Chuang Tzu

· Among the great things which are to be found among us, the Being of Nothingness is the greatest. -Leonardo da Vinci

· What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein

· It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring. -Spanish Proverb

· Men argue, Nature acts. -Voltaire

· The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere. -Empedocles

· Barn’s burnt down---now I can see the moon. -Masahide

· Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. -John Lennon

· Out of clutter find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. -Albert Einstein

· The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is. -Ludwig Wittgenstein

· Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. -Kahlil Gibran

· How refreshing, the whinny of a packhorse unloaded of everything! - Luis Ponce de Leon, returning to his university after five years’ imprisonment by the Inquisition, resumed his lectures with the words: “As we were saying yesterday...”

· Chi Hsing-tzu was raising a fighting cock for his lord. After ten days, and the lord asked, “Is he ready?” Chi anwered, “No sir, he is still vain and flushed with rage.” Ten days passed, and the prince asked about the cock. Chi said, “Not yet sir. He is on the alert whenever he hears another cock crowing.” When the prince’s inquiry came again, Chi replied, “Not quite yet, sir. His sense of fighting is still smoldering within him.” When another ten days elapsed, Chi said to the lord: “He is almost ready. Even when he hears another crowing, he shows no excitement. He now resembles on made of wood. His qualities are integrated. No cocks are his match---they will at once run away from him.”
-Chuang Tzu

· Wealthy patrons invited Ikkyu to a banquet. Ikkyu arrived dressed in his beggar’s robes. The host, not recognizing him, chased him away. Ikkyu went home, changed into his ceremonial robe of purple brocade, and returned. With great respect, he was recieved into the banquet room. There he put his robe on the cushion, saying, “I expect you invited the robe since you showed me away a little while ago,” and left.

· Where there are humans you’ll find flies, and Buddhas. -Issa

· A man walking across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger chasing after him. Coming to a cliff, he caught hold of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Terrifed, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger had come, waiting to eat him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little began to gnaw away at the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

· “I am going to pose a question,” said King Milinda to Nagasena. “Can you answer?” Nagasens said, “Please ask your question.” The king said, “I have already asked.” Nagasena said, “I have already answered.” The king said, “What did you answer?” Nagasena said, “What did you ask?” The king said, “I asked nothing.” Nagasena said, “I answered nothing.”

· Ten years’ searching in the deep forest, Today great laughter at the edge of the lake.
-Soen

· Catch the vigorous horse of your mind.