The Zen Teachings of Jesus Quotes

“Impermanence is the way of reality. The world changes. We ourselves change. Change is the only truth. Therefore, to hold on to a fixed idea, concept, doctrine, or opinion is like committing spiritual suicide.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“While a "don't-know mind" is alive and full of possibilities, a mind that claims to know is a closed and stagnant one.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“As Catholic mystic Thomas Merton observed, "Everything that is, is holy." To see the truth of this statement is the beginning of an abundant life.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Zen people almost never talk about hell or sin. For the real problem is ignorance, especially ignorance about our true identity.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“One of the most profound truths that Mahayana Buddhism teaches is that nirvana is samsara (the troubled world). [...] The same truth is expressed most beautifully in the Christian image of the Incarnation: God descends to reascend. There can be no ascension without descent. We must realize that Zen and Christianity are not telling two different stories but one story.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Reality is neither good nor bad; it is a matter of how we choose to perceive it. For someone who has mastered the art of seeing, the world is always perfect. External reality does not have to change in order to make us happy. The secret lies in changing our perception of it.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Jesus illustrated the principle of wu-wei beautifully in his Nature Sermon. The wild birds neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet they are fed; the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin, yet they are clothed. Wu-wei is not about being lazy and doing nothing. Rather, it is about following the way of nature and not wasting energy. It is about the beauty of "letting it be"!”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Above all, Zen discipline means complete openness to what is and the ability to be totally immersed in whatever one is doing.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Truth is like life in that we cannot freeze it without killing it.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Compassion is not a matter of charity, pity, or sympathy. It is a result of seeing the interconnectedness of all things and recognizing that this is a participatory universe in which we are all one.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“But in order to look, one has to start with a beginner's mind that carries no preconceptions or presumptions. The beginner's mind looks to find out what is new; it does not look to confirm.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Disappointment is the fast track to enlightenment because it accelerates our coming to terms with reality.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“To do God's will is simply to surrender our ego and accept what is. It is to develop a nonviolent approach to life: to recognize and accept our weaknesses and limitations, to be friendly with the universe instead of fighting against it, to accept that there are things that we simply cannot control or predict.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Enlightenment is not an achievement; it is just the seeing of reality as it is. In fact, nirvana is simply what is. We have been staring at it all our lives, and yet so few of us get it. The fact is that life is at the same time lamentable and beautiful. When we realize this humorous and absurd beauty of life, what can we do but to burst into laughter?”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Intellectually, we all know that we cannot avoid death. But for most people, there is usually a wide discrepancy between between intellectual reality and psychological reality. Psychologically, we tend to deny death. [...] Recognizing the reality of death psychologically and not just intellectually is an important part of spiritual awakening.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“{T]hose who are always trying to control everything and eliminate all uncertainties are miserable. For they are fighting against nature. On the other hand, those who come to accept uncertainties as inevitable live lives of peace.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Zen calls our attention to the wonders of the ordinary. There is a hidden dimension of beauty, richness, and harmony in the common world surrounding us, but we seldom take notice. Zen tries to stimulate our sensitivity to these natural wonders and hence to recover the joy in our daily lives.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Carrying water and chopping wood are just as much spiritual practices as reading scriptures.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“The point of Zen is not to defy reason but to recognize the limitations of rationality.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Spiritual truth has more to do with meaning than with facticity, and meaning is a function of personal experience. If we reread the fairy tales that were told to us as children, it is very likely that we will discover a wealth of new meanings. But these meanings could not have been made available to us when we were children because we simply did not have the maturity then to understand them. In a sense, there is not just one Bible but millions of them. For each of us is effectively reading a personalized version of the Bible, even if we all try hard to be "objective" in our reading. Subjectivity in interpretation is built-in - for we read what we are.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“For most people, truth is closely associated with with solidity, finality, permanence, universality, and security. But Jesus used the metaphor of "living water" for truth. [...] While we tend to visualize truth as some kind of sacred rock, Jesus visualized it as water: amorphous, adaptable, and incapable of being grasped.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Many people have completely missed out on the joy, humor, and profundity of Jesus' teachings because they keep holding on to the first interpretation they were taught back in Sunday school. In a way, they are like butterflies that are too afraid to come out of their cocoons or grown-ups who will not let go of their childhood clothes. By refusing to let their understanding grow with their personal experience, they are ensuring that the scriptures remain as a dull document progressively fading into oblivion rather than metamorphosing into the living words of God.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“The presence of multiple interpretations is never a problem; it is simply a manifestation of the diversity of life. It is only when we try to enforce uniformity in interpretation that acts of violence, human suffering, and the deadening of the soul begin.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“For no matter what our religion, culture, or belief is, we always have a common reference point: the Self, who is the ultimate observer. The Self is the Way!”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“We cannot arrive at the original "I" through rational thought! The Self has to remain forever fuzzy. Indeed, it is the Subject that cannot be observed, the Name that cannot be named, the Word than cannot be spoken, It is the Silence that cannot be comprehended by the rational mind.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“[A]ll beings in the universe are interdependent. Thus, the love of God means the love of All There Is. The one who loves God is the one who adopts a loving attitude to all things in life, for all are intimately connected and do not exist apart from one another. Therefore, the second greatest commandment is simply a derivative of the first one. Our love for others is due to our recognition that each one of them is also an integral part of God, inseparable from Ultimate Reality.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Real renunciation is not self-deprivation or asceticism. If it were, many masochists would qualify as spiritual people. True spirituality is an affirmation of life and not a negation of it. The main point is to have equal love for all.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asked us to turn to nature as our teacher. Nature does not make any distinction in its treatment of the good and the evil, nor does it discriminate between the just and the unjust. To treat all things and all people as equal is the way of nature. Jesus said that our love of others should also be like that. True love is indiscriminate. In this light, the instruction to "love your enemies" and to "pray for those who persecute you" is more a reflection of this nondiscriminatory mentality than an intention to go overboard.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“When we find the dark side of life too much to take, when we feel an urge to fight or escape from it all, perhaps we should visualize a lotus flower, the timeless Buddhist symbol for purity. While the lotus itself is clean and beautiful, it is nevertheless rooted in dirty, stinking mud. Unsightly as the mud may be, it provides the necessary nutrients for the lotus flower. Should the flower be disconnected from the mud, it cannot continue to live. Perhaps we should think of our greed, anger, and lust in the same way: they provide the necessary food for our soul.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus

“Like avoidance, indulgence is also a form of escape. The objects of indulgence, be they drugs, alcohol, or sex, are simply used as painkillers. Experienced healers know that the real problem often does not lie in the drug or whatever object an addict is addicted to. For most addicts, the problem existed long before they started taking their drug of choice. Experienced healers also realize that getting rid of the drug does not get rid of the problem. In fact, it is critical to address the real problem at the time the drug is removed. More often than not, the drug-taking behavior is a symptom for a deep-seated unwillingness to face life as it is, i.e., a lack of gentleness. Thus, forced abstinence, without treating the root of the problem, may do more harm than good.”
― Kenneth S. Leong, The Zen Teachings of Jesus