Zen is the game of insight, the game of discovering who you are beneath the social masks.
—Reginald Horace Blyth (1898–1964) British Japanologist, Zen Author
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
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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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
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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
If we expended all our energies solely on taking care of our own needs we would stop growing. In that respect what we call “soul” can be viewed as the surplus energy that can be invested into change and transformation. As such, it is the cutting edge of evolution.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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
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
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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Every moment of our lives we are either growing or dying—and it’s largely a choice, not fate. Throughout its life cycle, every one of the body’s trillions of cells is driven to grow and improve its ability to use more of its innate yet untapped capacity. Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself”. It turns conventional thinking upside down…As living cells—or as people—there is no staying the same. If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. And the goal of a lifetime is continued growth, not adulthood. As Rene Dubos put it, “Genius is childhood recaptured”. For this to happen, studies show that we must recapture—or prevent the loss of—such child-like traits as the ability to learn, to love, to laugh about small things, to leap, to wonder, and to explore. It’s time to rescue ourselves from our grown-up ways before it’s too late.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Zen lives in the present. The Whole teaching is: how to be in the present; how to get out of the past which is no more and how not to get involved in the future which is not yet, and just to be rooted, centered, in that which is.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
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
There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism, and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things.
—Buddhist Teaching
Attention is psychic energy, and like physical energy, unless we allocate some part of it to the task at hand, no work gets done.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It’s something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
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
The mind that does not understand is the Buddha. There is no other.
—Buddhist Teaching
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
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
No matter what verbal space you try to enclose Zen in, it resists, and spills over … the Zen attitude is that words and truth are incompatible, or at least that no words can capture truth.
—Douglas R. Hofstadter (b.1945) American Cognitive Scientist, Author
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
Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill? Does it keep you from becoming a more fully realized person? Do you feel ashamed of what you have to do at work? All too often, the answer to such questions is yes. Yet it does not have to be like that. Work can be one of the most joyful, most fulfilling aspects of life. Whether it will be or not depends on the actions we collectively take.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American 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 (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
In studying the way, realizing it is hard; once you have realized it, preserving it is hard. When you can preserve it, putting it into practice is hard.
—Zen Proverb Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism
The ultimate Path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing.
—Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk
The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Zen is non-serious. Zen has a tremendous sense of humor. No other religion has evolved so much that it can have that sense of humor.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%—when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity…one must first embark on the formidable journey of self-discovery in order to create a vision with authentic soul.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
In Zen, poverty is voluntary, and considered not really as poverty so much as simplicity, freedom, unclutteredness.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
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
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
Sir John Templeton: “My ethical principle in the first place was: ‘Where could I use my talents that God gave me to help the most people?'”
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
When each of these three elements of vision—concern for excellence, for people and for the wider environment—are present, business is transformed from a tool for making profits into a creative, humane experiment for improving life.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The life of Zen begins, therefore, in a disillusion with the pursuit of goals which do not really exist the good without the bad, the gratification of a self which is no more than an idea, and the morrow which never comes.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Zen says: be empty. Look without any idea. Look into the nature of things but with no idea, with no prejudice, with no presupposition.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
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
To know oneself is the first step toward making flow a part of one’s entire life. But just as there is no free lunch in the material economy, nothing comes free in the psychic one. If one is not willing to invest psychic energy in the internal reality of consciousness, and instead squanders it in chasing external rewards, one loses mastery of one’s life, and ends up becoming a puppet of circumstances.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Zen says everything is divine so how can anything be special? All is special. Nothing is non-special so nothing can be special.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Frozen in fear, you avoid responsibility because you think your experience is beyond your control. This stance keeps you from making decisions, solving problems, or going after what you want in life.
—David Emerald
The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s hum drum life, a life of monotonous, uninspiring commonplaceness, into one of art, full of genuine inner creativity.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
Enjoyment, on the other hand, is not always pleasant, and it can be very stressful at times. A mountain climber, for example, may be close to freezing, utterly exhausted, and in danger of falling into a bottomless crevasse, yet he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Sipping a pina colada under a palm tree at the edge of the turquoise ocean is idyllic, but it just doesn’t compare to the exhilaration he feels on the windswept ridge.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist