The Other Side of Nothing Quotes

“The Brahmajala Sutra says, “A disciple of the Buddha must not himself use false words and speech, or encourage others to lie or lie by expedient means. He should not involve himself in the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of lying, saying that he has seen what he has not seen or vice-versa, or lying implicitly through physical or mental means. As a Buddha’s disciple, he ought to maintain Right Speech and Right Views always, and lead all others to maintain them as well. If instead, he causes wrong speech, wrong views, or evil karma in others, he commits a major offense.” In the conventional sense, it’s bad to tell lies. But that does not mean you always have to say everything you’re thinking. The answer to the question “Does this outfit make me look fat?” is always “Of course not!”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“Kobun also said, “The relation between the Precepts and the words of avowal is like a person who is always thankful, and is always able to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ It is the bright side of things and the shadowy side of things.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“We tend to think of repentance or confession as only an individual matter. I did something wrong, and so I repent for it. Why should I repent for someone else’s wrongdoing? But Kobun sees something that most of us miss. Recognition and acknowledgment of our own faults “is revealed in the universal scene,” he says. When he says “this reverse recognition” in the next sentence, he means that the universe “out there” recognizes repentance “in here” as the understanding that the individual’s ethical actions are a reflection of a universal ethics, which does not belong to the individual and is not the creation of human ideas and thoughts.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“The entire universe has no gaps to accommodate space.” Space is not emptiness between one solid thing and another solid thing. Those solid things are also space, or emptiness.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“The entire universe has no gaps to accommodate space.” Space is not emptiness between one solid thing and another solid thing. Those solid things are”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“Maybe to exist as a thing separate from other things is itself pain.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“There is no separation between creator, creation, and created thing. You simply admit that you are an extension of the creation, a part of it, accepted by it. Eventually the effort becomes how to live within the intention of the creator. To find this out and follow this Way, is to live.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“As the French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” It’s a shame that simply being quiet is so difficult for us.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being

“Dwelling on past mistakes is a way of reinforcing your ego. The ego can be strengthened just as well by dwelling on what’s bad about you as it can by dwelling on what’s good. In fact, for some of us — myself included — dwelling on what’s bad about ourselves reinforces the ego much more effectively than dwelling on what’s good.”
― Brad Warner, The Other Side of Nothing: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being