Zen Culture Quotes

“Zen art makes one aware of the work of art itself.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“Perhaps the most noticeable principle of Zen art is its asymmetry; we search in vain for straight lines, even numbers, round circles. Furthermore, nothing ever seems to be centered. Our first impulse is to go into the work and straighten things up—which is precisely the effect the artist intended.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“The koan describes three monks watching a banner flutter in the breeze. One monk observes, "The banner is moving," but the second insists, "The wind is moving.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“How do you see things so clearly?" with the seeming one-liner, "I close my eyes"?”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“revised them to suit Zen purposes.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“The original teachings of the Buddha are more a philosophy than a religion, for they admit no supreme god, nor do they propose any salvation other than that attainable through human diligence. The aim is temporal happiness, to be realized through asceticism—which was taught as a practical means of turning one's back on the world and its incumbent pain.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“Upon reaching Nanking, he paused to visit the Chinese Emperor Wu, a man known to be a particularly devout Buddhist. The emperor was delighted to receive his famous Indian guest and proceeded immediately to boast of his own accomplishments. "I have built many temples. I have copied the sacred sutras. I have led many to the Buddha. Therefore, I ask you: What is my merit: What reward have I earned?" Bodhidharma reportedly growled, "None whatsoever, your Majesty." The emperor was startled but persisted, "Tell me then, what is the most important principle or teaching of Buddhism?" "Vast emptiness," Bodhidharma replied, meaning, of course, the void of nonattachment. Not knowing what to make of his guest, the emperor backed away and inquired, "Who exactly are you who stands before me now?" To which Bodhidharma admitted he had no idea.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“These early Japanese had no religious doctrines other than respect for the natural world and the sanctity of family and community. There were no commandments to be followed, no concept of evil. Such moral teachings as existed were that nature contains nothing that can be considered wicked, and therefore man, too, since he is a child of nature, is exempt from this flaw. The only shameful act is uncleanliness, an inconsiderate breach of the compact between man and nature.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“The patina of age is a lesson that time is forever and that you, creature of an hour, would do well to know humility in the face of eternity.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“Symmetrical art is a closed form, perfect in itself and frozen in completeness; asymmetrical art invites the observer in, to expand his imagination and to become part of the process of creation.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“carries on as though it really does exist, dualities and all? Quite simply, Zen would have you treat the physical world exactly as followers of Western religions sometimes treat the spiritual world—as a convenient fiction whose phenomena you honor as though they existed, although you know all the while that they are illusions. The world of strife and relative values may trouble those who mistake it for the real thing, but the Zen-man echoes the words of Hamlet, "We that have free souls, it touches us not." The world is in fact meaningless. It is one's mind that is moving.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“It is easier to be tranquil about existence when you recognize the pointlessness of solemnity.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“According to Ch'an (and Zen), understanding comes only by ignoring the intellect and heeding the instincts, the intuition.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture

“Westerners view the physical world as the operative reality and the unseen, nonphysical world as an abstraction (comforting or not, depending upon our beliefs or immediate needs, the spiritual world is said to grow less abstract to those in foxholes). But Zen takes the opposite tack; it holds that true reality is the fundamental unity of mind and matter, inner spirit and external world. When life is viewed in such terms, there can be no success or failure, happiness or unhappiness; life is a whole, and you are simply part of it. There are no dualities; hence there is nothing to worry about. The result is perfect tranquility.”
― Thomas Hoover, Zen Culture