Zen Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old zen quotes, zen sayings, and zen proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The whole point of Zen is to suspend the rules we have superimposed on things and to see the world as it is. Alan Watts
The real Zen of the old Chinese masters was wuh-shih or 'no-fuss.' Alan Watts
Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. Bodhidharma
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. Roshi Suzuki
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there Robert M. Pirsig
I'd like to offer something to help you but in the Zen school, we don't have a single thing. Ikkyu
Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Sheng Yen
Doing nothing / is / doing something / inner self / resting. Japanese Wind
Pure expression / Of the thing, the self / Being and letting be / All that is, that / Will be. Ian Zulick
The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting. Confucius
Life is a balance of holding on and letting go. Rumi
Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home. Zhuangzi
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. Rumi
Not being tense but ready. / Not thinking but not dreaming. / Not being set but flexible. / Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. / It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come. Bruce Lee
When you've understood this scripture, throw it away. If you can't understand this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom. Jack Kerouac
Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate. Huang Po
The things I carry are my thoughts. That's it. They are the only weight. My thoughts determine whether I am free and light or burdened. Kamal Ravikant
Stay in the center, and you will be ready to move in any direction. Alan Watts
Preoccupied with a single leaf you won't see the tree. Vagabond
We're lost where the mind can't find us utterly lost. Ikkyu