言 · Words
Threshold of the spoken
Step inside slowly. Each fragment is its own small room.
Read one. Let it settle. Then, perhaps, another.
Zen & Taoist Fragments
Short attributed lines, kept close to the originals — read slowly, one at a time.
“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.”
— Lao Tzu · Tao Te Ching I
“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”
— Sengcan · Hsin Hsin Ming
“To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.”
— Dōgen · Genjōkōan
“A special transmission outside the scriptures; direct pointing at the human heart.”
— After Bodhidharma
“The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror — grasping nothing, refusing nothing.”
— Chuang Tzu · Inner Chapters
“All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind.”
— After Huang-Po
“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know.”
— Lao Tzu · Tao Te Ching 56
“When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised.”
— Sengcan · Hsin Hsin Ming
“Each returning to its root is called stillness; this is the constant return.”
— After Lao Tzu · Tao Te Ching 16
“Time, in its own way, is being. Being, in its own way, is time.”
— After Dōgen · Uji
“Outwardly engage in no activity; inwardly the mind is not panting after anything.”
After Bodhidharma
Notes on Silence
Small observations gathered the way one gathers stones from a river.
“Silence is not the absence of sound but the ground in which sound becomes audible.”
— A note
“The room is built of walls. Its usefulness lies in the empty space between them.”
— After Lao Tzu
“Listen to a stream long enough and you will hear your own thinking quiet down.”
— A note
“Stillness is not stopping. It is the place from which all movement is seen.”
— A reflection in the spirit of the Hsin Hsin Ming
“What cannot be said does not therefore disappear. It waits, the way a mountain waits for snow.”
— A note
“There is a kind of listening that has nothing to do with the ears.”
— A reflection in the spirit of Chuang Tzu
“Empty the cup before you ask for tea. The teaching has always been there; only the cup was full.”
— An old Zen image
“To be quiet is not to be absent. It is the most attentive form of presence.”
— A note
“The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you have the fish, you can forget the trap.”
Chuang Tzu
Ancient Echoes
A handful of voices, held side by side.
Huang-Po
“The mind in itself is not mind, yet neither is it no-mind.”
Bodhidharma
“When the mind is like a wall, you may enter the Way.”
Chuang Tzu
“The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you have the fish, you can forget the trap.”
Lao Tzu
“Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.”
Dōgen
“A flower falls, even though we love it; a weed grows, even though we do not love it.”
Sengcan
“Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.”
“Each moment is all there is. Each moment is the universe.”
Dōgen