Searching for quotes

Lucid Lounge
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I’m looking for beautiful spiritual buddhist/zen/taoist/hindu/sufi/shamanic quotes, preferably with a deep philosophical meaning. The deeper the better :smile:

Some of my favorites:

"[i]Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in dewdrops on the grass,
Or even in one drop of water.

Enlightenment does not divide you,
Just as the moon does not break the water.
You cannot hinder enlightenment,
Just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.
The depth of the drop is the height of the moon.
Each reflection, however long or short its duration,
Manifests the vastness of the dewdrop,
And realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.[/i]"

  • Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

"[i]One who knows does not speak.
One who speaks does not know.
Close your holes, shut your doors,
Soften your sharpness, loosen your knots.
Soften your glare and merge with the everyday.

This is called mysteriously attaining oneness.

Though you cannot possess it, you are intimate with it
And at the same time, distant.
Though you cannot possess it, you are benefitted by it,
And harmed by it.
You cannot possess it, but are esteemed through it
And humbled by it.

Therefore the world values you.[/i]"

  • Tao-Te-Ching (chapter 56)

Let them come :happy:

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I like the one by Ghandi, when asked by a reporter on his arival to the UK, what he thought of western civilization, he replied he thought it would be a good idea. :smile:

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LOL nice one Psyconaut! Yours too RF :smile:

Keep’em coming :peek:

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Why do you read many books? It is of no use. The great book is within your heart. Open the pages of this inexhaustible book, the source of all knowledge. You will know everything.
Sivananda

Once Shakyamuni Buddha was asked “How can I prevent this drop of water from ever drying up?” He answered, “Throw it into the Sea!”
Shakyamuni Buddha

What science finds to be nonexistent, we must accept as nonexistent; but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter…It is quite clear that there are many, many mysterious things.
His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama

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On Death
(from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran)

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in
the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto
the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river
and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your
silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your
heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate
to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the
shepherd when he stands before the king whose
hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the sheered not joyful beneath his trembling,
that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the
wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the
breath from its restless tides, that it may rise
and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountaintop, then
you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then
shall you truly dance.

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Wow… that’s a deep one :happy:

Thx moogle for posting!

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Mystic,
It’s funny cause I just discover your signature citation :
“The world? Moonlit drops shaken from the crane’s bill.”
in a french forum.
People were discussing about the meaning of it :
The first one is a quite obvious meaning : the world is transient.
But the second meaning was extremely subtle : if you can see the reflect of the moon in a drop falling from the bill of a crane, it’s because you sort of zoom in very much.
So this Dogen poetry means that you have to zoom out.

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Thx Basilus West! I didn’t realize the 2nd meaning. It’s very subtle and beautiful!!
There’s perhaps another meaning: while the drops shaken from the crane’s bill symbolize the impermanence of this world, the mention that they’re moonlit, indicates an aspect of an immanent as well as transcendant, permanent truth, enlightening the transient world. The moon and its light are often used in this sense, to indicate the formless, timeless, nondualistic reality which underlies the impermanent and dualistic world of forms and time. While the world may vanish, the moonlight will always shine through.

PS. Are you much into Dogen poetry?

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… like in this Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam :

Ah, Moon of my Delight who know’st no wane,
The Moon of Heav’n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me—in vain!

Not at all. I just discover it today.

Waw ! Just have a look there !
https://www.allspirit.co.uk/poetryindex.html
It’s where I found the Rubaiyat and there is a lot of poetry and quotations. They are perphaps interesting.

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Wow yes that’s a great site! Thx for the link :content:

Eihei Dogen often used moon symbolism in his poetry. Here are some others:

[i]There is midnight water,
Waveless, windless,
The old boat’s swamped
With moonlight.

Contemplating the clear moon
Reflecting a mind empty as open sky -
Drawn by its beauty,
I lose myself
In the shadows it casts.

Outside my window, plum blossoms,
Just on the verge of unfurling, contain the spring;
The clear moon is held in the cup-like petals
Of the beautiful flower I pick and twirl.

Snow is falling far and wide,
Each snowflake neither the same way
Nor completely different than the other ones;
Singing and dancing, they chase after each other,
Till the whole universe is made afresh with its new covering,
As the snow even conceals the moon and clouds,
And puts out the flame in our hearth;
All kinds of leaves and flowers respond differently
To the cycles of the seasons,
Yet remain oblivious to the cold of night or the chill of winter -
So goes the preaching of the Dharma
By the pines in the valleys and the bamboos on the mountains.[/i]

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It is in the darkest of times that the finest of men will prevail …
One which gives me sometimes the power to continu in some actions :smile: