Zen Keys Quotes

“The sea is either calm or stormy. If one wants a calm sea one cannot get it by suppressing the stormy sea. One must wait for this same sea to become calm.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The notion or emptiness in Buddhism is derived from the notion of non-identity. Emptiness (suryata) signifies the hollow space at the interior of a thing, the absence of identity of this thing, and not the absence of the thing itself. The image is that of a balloon. The balloon is empty; in the same way, everything is devoid of absolute identity.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Kung-an [koans] were in vogue during the Tang Dynasty. Each Zen practitioner had a kung-an to work on. But before this period, Zen Masters did not need kung-an. The kung-an is, therefore, not something absolutely indispensable to the practice of Zen. It is, more or less, a skillful means created by Zen Masters in order to help people who work under their direction.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“As for the world of phenomena, we are inclined to believe that it is illusory, separate from reality. And we think that only by ridding ourselves of it shall we be able to reach the world of True Mind. That, too, is an error. This world of birth and death, this world of lemon trees and maple trees, is the world of reality in itself. There is no reality that exists outside of the lemon trees and the maples.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Many practitioners are inclined to think that sitting in meditation is a means for obtaining Awakening, which would thus be an end. However, a line of demarcation between the end and the means cannot truly be established. When we turn from forgetfulness to awareness of being, this state is already true Awakening. This is why the Ts'ao-t'ung [Soto] sect has said, "To sit in meditation is to be Buddha." When one truly sits in meditation, one finds oneself Awakened; and Awakening is Buddha himself.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“To sit with only the intention of finding the meaning of a kung-an [koan] is not truly to sit in Zen; it is to spend one's time and one's life vainly. If one sits in meditation it is not in order to reflect on a kung-an, but in order to light the lamp of one's true being; the meaning of the kung-an will be revealed quite naturally in this light which becomes more and more brilliant.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The kung-an is the lamp-shade, while Zen is the lamp itself.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The object of sitting in meditation is not to think, reflect, or lose oneself in the realm of concepts and discriminations; neither is it remaining immobile like a stone or a tree trunk. How must these two extremes of conceptualization and inertia be avoided? The solution is to remain in the midst of the experience of reality, under the lamp of awareness of being. Direct experience and awareness of this direct experience constitute the whole problem. The words seem to be complicated, but the thing is so simple!”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“All concepts, including those of “unity” and of "duality," are foreign to experience which can be described as non-conceptual.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The awakened man lives in the world of things like everyone else. When he sees a rose he knows that it is a rose, like everyone else, But the difference is that he is neither conditioned nor imprisoned by concepts. Concepts now become marvelous "skillful means" in his possession.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“To see things in their interdependent relational mature is to perceive their nature of non-identity. Put another way, it is to recognize their existence, even when they are not present.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Zen certainly derives from Buddhism, but a form of Buddhism that belongs to a geographical zone influenced by the Chinese culture. The Chinese Zen tree, transplanted in Japan, in Vietnam, and in Korea, has grown well and greatly. Zen Buddhism, in each of these countries, differs with certain nuances from that practiced in China. One can, however, easily recognize its identity.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Though Zen is a Chinese form of Buddhism, it reflects entirely the spirit and splendor of Indian Buddhism, from its inception to its full development. For this reason one can say that Zen brings us the authentic spirit of Buddhism.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Although different from Indian Buddhism from the standpoint of form and practice, in the end Zen seems to be more authentic than many other Buddhist schools. In particular, Zen emphasizes the necessity of practice aiming at enlightenment which is the very foundation of Buddhism.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“It can be said arbitrarily that the kung-an [koan] is like a mathematical problem that the student must resolve by furnishing a reply. However, a big difference exists between the kung-an and the mathematical problem—the solution of the mathematical problem is included in the problem itself, while the response to the kung-an lies in the life of the practitioner.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“There is no enlightenment outside daily life.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Zen . . . does not belong to monks only. Everyone can study and practice it. Many laymen have been recognized as illustrious Zen Masters, and have aroused the respect of the monks themselves.

The laity are related to the monasteries by the material support they provide to them, as it sometimes happens that the labor of the monks may not be sufficient to ensure the upkeep of the monastery. The laity are also related to the monasteries by their participation in the construction of temples and sanctuaries and by their cultural activities; for example, the printing and publishing of sutras and scriptural works by monks. A good number of monasteries each month organize bat quan trai gioi for laymen who wish to live for twenty-four or forty-eight hours in a monastery exactly like monks. Places are reserved for them for these periods of bat quan trai gioi, during which they practice Zen under the direction of monks.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“It is through the close interaction of the laity and the monks that the essence of Zen penetrates social life.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Zen is a living tradition which can help to make sober, healthy, well-balanced, and stable people.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Accustomed as we are to being constantly "occupied," if these occupations should happen to be taken from us, we find ourselves empty and abandoned. We then refuse to confront ourself and instead go off in search of friends, to mix in with the crowd, to listen to the radio or to the television, to get rid of this impression of emptiness.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Never in all history has man had to face such terrible dangers. He is at the point where he is no longer sure of being able to control the situation. The economic, political, and military systems he has established have turned against him and imposed themselves upon him.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The Third World War will not be unleashed by the great powers; it will break out first in the zones of famine and oppression.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“Each of us, for the most part, continues his daily life, contributing to the maintenance and consolidation of the machinery of production and consumption. We eat, drink, work, and divert ourselves, as if nothing is going to happen.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“What we lack is not an ideology or a doctrine that will save the world. What we lack is awareness of what we are, of what our true situation really is.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The development of Japanese economy has made Japan into a Western-like nation, in which many of the spiritual values have given place to materialism. The temples and monasteries must also participate in the present economic way of life and be based upon the present social needs of producing and consuming in order to exist. They can no longer play their role of spiritual leadership, as in the past. Zen is threatened on the very ground on which it was born and developed.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The West has begun to learn about Zen when it is already on the way to disintegration.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“What made Mahatma Gandhi's struggle a great success was not a doctrine—not even the doctrine of non-violence—but Gandhi himself. In our day a lot is written and read about the doctrine of non-violence, and people everywhere are trying to apply it. But they cannot rediscover the vitality of the kind that Gandhi had. The reason for this is that the "Gandhians" do not possess the spiritual force of Gandhi. They have faith in his doctrine but cannot set into motion a movement of great solidarity because none of them possess the spiritual force of a Gandhi and therefore cannot produce sufficient compassion and sacrifice.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“True happiness does not reside in the ill-considered consumption of goods paid for by the suffering, famine, and death of others, but in a life enlightened by the feeling of a constant responsibility for one's neighbor.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“The doctrine of Non-Identity aims at bringing to light the inter-dependent nature of things; at the same time it demonstrates to us the fact that the concepts we have of things, as well as the categories such as existence/non-existence, unity/plurality, etc. do not faithfully reflect reality and cannot convey it. It shows us that the world of concepts is other than the world of reality in itself. It forewarns us that conceptual knowledge is not the perfect instrument for studying truth; that our words are incapable of expressing the truth about that which concerns ultimate reality.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice

“If I live without having Awareness of this life, that amounts to not having lived. I can then say, as did
Albert Camus in his novel The Outsider, I live "as one dead.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice