“From the start of your training under a wise master, have no recourse to incense offerings, prostrations, recitation of buddha names, repentances, or sutra reading. Just sit in meditation and attain the dropping off of mind and body.”
attachment
from ‘The World We Have’, by Thich Nhat Hanh
“If we don’t know how to stop our over-consumption, then the death of our civilization will surely come more quickly. We can slow this process by stopping and being mindful, but the only way to do this is to accept the eventual death of this civilization, just as we accept the death of our own physical form. Acceptance is made possible when we know that deep down our true nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death”
from ‘An Introduction to Zen Buddhism’, by D.T. Suzuki
“The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen.”
catching the bull 