216 pages
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“14. Muddy Road
Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.
Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unble to cross the intersection.
"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carriedher over the mud.
Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"
"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“If the feet of enlightenment moved, the great ocean would overflow; If that head bowed, it would look down upon the heavens.
Such a body has no place to rest. . . .
Let another continue this poem.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“It is too clear and so it is hard to see. A dunce once searched for a fire with a lighted lantern. Had he known what fire was, He could have cooked his rice much sooner.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“When the mouth opens All are wrong.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“Meeting a Zen master on the road, Face him neither with words nor silence. Give him an uppercut And you will be called one who understands Zen.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“Mamiya concentrated upon what the sound of one hand might be. “You are not working hard enough,” his teacher told him. “You are too attached to food, wealth, things, and that sound. It would be better if you died. That would solve the problem.” The next time Mamiya appeared before his teacher he was again asked what he had to show regarding the sound of one hand. Mamiya at once fell over as if he were dead. “You are dead all right,” observed the teacher. “But how about that sound?” “I haven’t solved that yet,” replied Mamiya, looking up. “Dead men do not speak,” said the teacher. “Get out!” 43.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy’s mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“When there is no place for Zen in the head of our generation, it is in grievous trouble.”
― quote from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
“When I was packing those, I caught myself taking all the important, profound, and indispensable titles I could – nearly filled the box. But one of the more eccentric librarians at the internment compound I’d gotten permission to riffle had put up a whole shelf full of cubes of women writers or texts about women. She was convinced nobody could be truly educated unless they’d read them – though nobody I ever met had, except her, maybe. […]”
― Samuel R. Delany, quote from Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
“The plain, inexorable fact was that any attempt of the America Negro to overthrow his oppressor with violence would not work...The courageous efforts of our own insurrectionist brothers, such as Denmark Vassey and Nat Turner, should be eternal reminders to us that a violent rebellion is doomed from the start. Anyone leading a violent rebellion must be willing to make an honest assessment regarding the possible casualties to a minority population confronting a well-armed, wealthy majority with a fanatical right wing that would delight in exterminating thousands of black men, women, and children.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., quote from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Diplomatic Immunity
“Sometimes they would sit in the parlor together, both reading – in entirely separate worlds, to be sure, but joined somehow.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from Blackbird House
“such is the corruption of nature that the bad are much more likely to debauch the good than the good to reform the bad.”
― Matthew Henry, quote from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
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