Taisen Deshimaru Quotes

1914–1982 Japan

Taisen Deshimaru (29 November 1914 – 30 April 1982) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher. His experiences led him to Bangka Island, where he taught zazen to the Chinese, Indonesian, and European inhabitants of the island.

Japan
Religious leaders

Also known as: Deshimaru, Taisen

Random Taisen Deshimaru quote

16 quotes

If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.

The Book of Positive Quotations (2007)

Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance.

Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis : Meditations on Computer Systems Development (2002)

To receive everything, one must open one's hands and give.

You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair.

Just Before Dark : Collected Nonfiction (1999)

Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.

Zen to Go (1989)

You must not take out your sword because if you try to kill someone, you must die for it yourself. What you must do instead is kill yourself, kill your own mind.

We should learn to think with our fingers.

Meditation (2003)

You are the strongest and the others keep their distance. It is no longer necessary to win victories over them.

Human wisdom alone is not enough, it is not complete. Only universal truth can provide the highest wisdom. Take away the word Zen and put Truth or Order of the Universe in its place.

Wherever we go we recreate our shells (hells), like an insect carrying its shell on its body. We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.

Zen Miracles : Finding Peace in an Insane World (2002)

If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it!

Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance — embracing all opposites.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhist Wisdom (2000)

Religions remain what they are. Zen is meditation. Meditation is the foundation of every religion.

You have to practice until you die.

Leading from Within : Martial Arts Skills for Dynamic Business and Management (1999)

Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.

Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery (1998)

Think with your whole body.

Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior : A Companion to the Book That Changes Lives (2007)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Taisen Deshimaru (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.