Zen Sayings

　　禅宗语录

　　Sitting Quietly

　　兀然无事坐、春夹草自生

　　"Sitting quietly, doing nothing,

　　Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself." Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 134, 222)

　　Suchness

　　青山自青山、白云自白云

　　"The blue mountains are of themselves blue mountains;

　　"The white clouds are of themselves white clouds." Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 134, 222)

　　Mountains are Mountains

　　The famous saying of Ch”ing-yüan Wei-hsin (Seigen Ishin):

　　老僧三十年前未参禪时、见山是山、见水是水、及至后夹亲见知识、有箇入处、见山不是山、见水不是水、而今得箇体歇处、依然见山秪是山、见水秪是水 (The Way of Zen 220 k)

　　Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it”s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters. 13

　　13 Ch”uan Teng Lu, 22. (The Way of Zen 126)

　　"Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters." (Essays in Zen Buddhism – First Series 24)

　　Eternity in an hour

　　万古长空 An eternity of endless space:

　　一朝风月 A day of wind and moon. (The Golden Age of Zen 246, 322 n.2)

　　"One of the most frequently reiterated couplets in Chinese Zen literature" (The Golden Age of Zen 246)

　　Oneness

　　天地同根 Heaven and earth and I are of the same root,

　　万物一体 The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance.

　　Zen Master Sêng-chao/Sõjõ (僧肇 384-414)

　　"Nan-ch”uan and his lay disciple Lu Hsuan (陆亘). Lu was reciting Seng-chao”s saying:

　　天地与我同根 Heaven and earth come from the same root as myself:

　　万物与我为一 All things and I belong to one Whole.

　　However, he did not really understand the full purport of it. Nan-ch”uan pointed at the peonies in the courtyard, saying, ”The worldlings look at these bush of flowers as in a dream." Lu did not see the point." (The Golden Age of Zen 285)

　　陆大夫向师道、｢肇法师、也甚奇怪、解道"天地与我同根、万物与我为一"｣师指庭前牡丹花曰、｢大夫、时人见此一花株如梦相似｣ (The Golden Age of Zen 324 n.92)

　　"While Rikkõ, a high government official of the T”ang dynasty, had a talk with his Zen master Nansen, the official quoted a saying of Sõjõ, a noted monk scholar of an earlier dynasty:

　　Heaven and earth and I are of the same root,

　　The ten-thousand things and I are of one substance

　　and continued, ”Is not this a most remarkable statement

　　” / Nansen called the attention of the visitor to the flowering plant in the garden and said, ”People of the world look at these flowers as if they were in a dream.” " (The Essentials of Zen Buddhism 483-4)

　　Unity

　　Merge your mind with cosmic space, integrate your actions with myriad forms.

　　Ch”an master Hung-chih Cheng-chüeh (宏智正觉 Wanshi Shõkaku, 1091-1157)

　　(Transmission of Light xi)

　　Subtlety

　　入林不动草、入水不立波

　　"Entering the forest he moves not the grass;

　　Entering the water he makes not a ripple." Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 152, 224)

　　Everyday Mind

　　争如著衣喫饮、此外更无佛祖 "There”s nothing equal to wearing clothes and eating food. Outside this there are neither Buddhas nor Patriarchs." Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 152, 224)

　　Seeking the Same Thing

　　From the K”un-lun mountains eastward the (Taoist) term "Great Oneness" is used. From Kashmir westward the (Buddhist) term sambodhi is used. Whether one looks longingly toward "non-being" (wu) or cultivates "emptiness" (sunyata), the principle involved is the same. 4

　　4 Quoted by Fung Yu-lan (1), v…

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