Zen is mind-less activity, that is, Mind-ful activity, and it may often be advisable to emphasize the mind, and say, Take care of the thoughts and the actions will take care of themselves.
—Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) British Japanologist, Zen Author
Zen in it’s essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
Without respect, the subtle alchemy that binds an organization or that serves as the impetus for a business transaction would dissolve into mutual suspicion and hostility.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
For Zen, man is the goal; man is the end unto himself. God is not something above humanity, God is something hidden within humanity. Man is carrying God in himself as a potentiality.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
In the words of Max DePree: “Management has a lot to do with answers. But leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: ‘Who do we intend to be?’ Not ‘What are we going to do?’ but ‘Who do we intend to be?'”
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
We can see unmistakeably that there is an inner relationship between Zen and the warrior’s life.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it’s like gold; after you understand it, it’s like dung.
—Zen Proverb Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism
To remain caught up in ideas and words about Zen is, as the old masters say, to stink of Zen.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Perhaps the most distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people, and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Knowing oneself is not so much a question of discovering what is present in one’s self, but rather the creation of who one wants to be.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Zen is all-inclusive. It never denies, it never says no to anything; it accepts everything and transforms it into a higher reality.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Someone once inquired of a Far Eastern Zen master, who had a great serenity and peace about him no matter what pressures he faced, “How do you maintain that serenity and peace?” He replied, “I never leave my place of meditation”. He meditated early in the morning and for the rest of the day, he carried the peace of those moments with him in his mind and heart.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
One has to reach to the absolute state of awareness: that is Zen. You cannot do it every morning for a few minutes or for half an hour and then forget all about it. It has to become like your heartbeat. You have to sit in it, you have to walk in it. Yes, you have even to sleep in it.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Through learning we grow, becoming more than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because it results in the transformation of what we were before, a setting aside of the old self in favor of a more complex one.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism, and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things.
—Buddhist Teaching
This is the Zen approach: nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
If we agree that the bottom line of life is happiness, not success, then it makes perfect sense to say that it is the journey that counts, not reaching the destination.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
As used in economics the term “capital” would be defined as follows: Capital refers to resources withheld from immediate consumption in the expectation of greater future returns. However controversial a topic this has been, capital has been the main—if not the only—way of achieving progress, even in violently anticapitalist, socialist countries. A dam, a hospital, a university, a cathedral, or a national park cannot be built without using up resources that would be easier to consume immediately, and none of them would be built at all unless they were believed to provide some greater returns in the future.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
We can either help to make this world a more incredible place than it has ever been, or we can hasten its return to inorganic dust.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The ultimate Path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing.
—Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk
Zen opens a man’s eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of pace in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
The mind that does not understand is the Buddha. There is no other.
—Buddhist Teaching
Zen is not a philosophy, it is poetry. It does not propose, it simply persuades. It does not argue, it simply sings its own song.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
The future of humanity will move closer and closer toward the approach of Zen, because the meeting of the East and West is possible only through something like Zen, which is earthly and yet unearthly.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: “I thought to myself, well if that’s the case and if what I’m scared of isn’t death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I’ve got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn’t done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference”.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Not to be bound by rules, but to be creating one’s own rules—this is the kind of life which Zen is trying to have us live.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
You become that which you think you are. Or, it is not that you become it, but that the idea gets very deeply rooted – and that’s what all conditioning is.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher