85 Zen Quotes to Calm Your Mind

Zen is a philosophy that was born out of Mahayana Buddhism, a school in China that teaches Taoist philosophy and Chinese spiritual practice. Zen emphasizes self-awareness, self-control and rigorous meditation practice to attain peace of mind. Practicing Zen is believed to have a calming effect on the mind and body, which helps one lead a healthy life and deal with various challenges efficiently. The Zen masters say that Zen is more of a way of living than a religion, and everyone can practice it, irrespective of their religion. Here are my favorite Zen quotes that will to help calm your mind.

Zen Quotes

1. “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~ Lao Tzu

2. “If you are exploring truth of life, explore the present moment. Living in the present moment is the only truth of life.” ~ Invajy

3. “When you sit, everything sits with you.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki

4. “Learning the art of unlearning and replacing old learning with a new learning is the true learning.” ~ Invajy

5. “Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” ~ Alan Watts

6. “Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.”~ Zen Proverb
7. “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
8. “Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” ~ Buddha
9. “To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.” ~ Thich Nhat Hạnh
10. “Accept the awful happenings of life; you will find the truths of life.” ~ Invajy

Zen Buddhism Quotes

11. “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.” ~ Huang Po
12. “Rest and be kind, you don’t have to prove anything.” ~ Jack Kerouac
13. “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
14. “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.”~ Koun Yamada
15. “Let go, or be dragged.” ~ Zen Proverb
16. “When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.” ~ Huang Po
17. “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” ~ Meister Eckhart
18. “The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.” ~ Confucius
19. “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
20. “Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?” ~ Zhuangzi

Zen Inspiring Short Quotes

21. “Act without expectation.” ~ Lao Tzu
22. Smile, breathe and go slowly. ~ Thich Nhat Hahn
23. “Love is the absence of judgment.” ~ Dalai Lama
24. “All know the way, but few actually walk it.” ~ Bodhidharma
25. “Mind is like a mad monkey.” ~  Sathya Sai Baba
26. “I live by letting things happen.” ~ Dogen
27. “There is no mistake in nature.” ~ Byron Katie
28. “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” ~ Bodhidharma
29. “The real meditation is how you live your life.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
30. “If you realize you have enough, you are truly rich.” ~ Lao Tzu

Famous Zen Quotes

31. “Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.” ~ Rumi
32. “The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
33. “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
34. “Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.”- Ramesh Balsekar
35. “Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home.” ~ Zhuangzi
36. “Wise men don’t judge – they seek to understand.” ~ Wei Wu Wei
37. “One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.”~ Dogen
38. “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”~ Alan Watts
39. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” ~ Lao Tzu
40. “Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Popular Zen Quotes

41. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hahn
42. “Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.” ~ Jack Kornfield
43. “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” ~ Buddha
44. “As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.” ~ Buddha
45. “Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” ~ Jack Kornfield
46. “All that we are, is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.” ~ Buddha
47. “When I feel like dancing, I dance. I don’t care if anyone else is dancing or if everyone else is laughing at me. I dance.”~ Rachel Danson
48. “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”~ Confucius
49. “Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.” ~ Maezumi Roshi
50. “When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves.” ~ Dogen

Quotes about Zen

51. “To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.” ~ Suzuki Roshi
52. “The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.” ~ Thich Nhat Hahn
53. “The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.”~ Ram Dass
54. “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” ~ Dalai Lama
55. “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” ~ Dalai Lama
56. “Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.”~ Buddha
57. “To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.” ~ Confucius
58. “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. And, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” ~ Lao Tzu
59. “The essence of the Way is detachment.” ~ Bodhidharma
60. “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” ~ Dalai Lama

Inspirational Zen Quotes

61. “Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life.” ~ Anonymous
62. “Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?” ~ Lao Tzu
63. “This dew like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.” ~ Dogen Zenji
64. “If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
65. “Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go.” ~ Shunryu Suzuki
66. “At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.”~ Chuang Tzu
67. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” ~ Buddha
68. “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” ~ Sonia Ricotti
69. “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.” ~ Eric Hoffer
70. “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ~ Thich Nhat Hahn

Quotes about Zen

71. “What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favorite day,” said Pooh. ~  A Milne
72. “When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.”~ Shunryu Suzuki
73. “Do not follow the idea of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.” ~ Dogen Zenji
74. “If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.” ~ Confucius
75. “Zen is an effort to become alert and awake.” ~ Osho
76. “And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.” ~ Dr. Seuss
77. “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” ~ Prema Chodron
78. “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” ~ Sharon Salzberg
79. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” ~ Confucius
80. “Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst.” ~ Lin Yutang

Zen Quotes

81. “Zen teaches that if we can open up to the inevitability of our demise, we can begin to transform and lighten up about it.” ~ Allen Klein
82. “In Zen we have no gurus.” ~ Frederick Lenz
83. “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” ~ Alan Watts
84. “Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.” ~ T. Suzuki
85. “To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.” ~ Dogen

Thank you for reading this. Over to you now. Which Zen Quotes did you like in the above list? Please let us know your favorite Zen Quotes in the comments section.

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