The Ten Thousand Things Quotes

“The enchantment of being here at all, alive and aware, is a gift too often considered a problem.

Simply feeling the aliveness—the unique suchness—of each never-to-be-repeated moment outshines completely the desire for power, or pleasure, or meaning—outshines those desires in my world at least.

When actually engaged in this aliveness without trying to explain it (as if it ever could be explained), questions such as “What does it all mean?” or “Who am I?” never even arise. The aliveness is the meaning.”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things

“So many of us want to rush to judgment—to latch on to one style of belief or another, shutting the mind entirely to other possibilities.”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things

“In each moment, things simply are as they are, whether “I” like it or not. That understanding is not something to be “realized” at some imagined future time after sufficient “practice,” but is a simple recognition of the mysterious, ineffable suchness of this moment. In that recognition, there is no thought of meditation, no practice of meditation, and no meditator or doer of anything else. The entire experience of being this particular point of view one has learned to call “myself,” feels unchosen, unfathomable, and mysterious to the nth degree. In the face of that, what exactly will you practice?”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things

“Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things

“I have always liked this by George Carlin: “I want to live my next life backwards. “You start out dead and get that out of the way. “Then you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day. “Then you get kicked out for being too healthy. “Enjoy your retirement and collect your pension. “Then when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day “You work 40 years until you’re too young to work. “You get ready for high school: drink alcohol, party, and you’re generally promiscuous. “Then you go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, and you have no responsibilities. “Then you become a baby, and then… “You spend your last 9 months floating peacefully in luxury, in spa-like conditions—central heating, room service on tap, and then… “You finish off as an orgasm.”
― Robert Saltzman, The Ten Thousand Things