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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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
There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism, and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things.
—Buddhist Teaching
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
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
However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) 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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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
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
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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
—Shunryu Suzuki (1904–71) Zen Buddhist Monk, Author
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 (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
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
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
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
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 a totally different kind of religion. It brings humanness to religion. It is not bothered about anything superhuman; its whole concern is how to make ordinary life a blessing.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The ultimate Path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing.
—Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk
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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
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
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
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
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
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 (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist