Skip to content

The local officials invited Linji to preach. Linji went up to the teaching hall and said: “Today I have no alternative but to bend to human sentiment—thus I have ascended to this seat [to preach]. By the standards of the Zen school, when you attempt to extol the great matter [of enlightenment], you simply cannot open your mouth. There’s no place for you to get a foothold.”

— Linji Yixuan

Another quote →

More quotes by Linji Yixuan

There is no Buddha that can be sought, no Path that can be achieved, no Dharma that can be attamed.

Even if they are there, they are all objects and scenes dependent on transformation [for their temporary being].

In my view, there are no buddhas and no sentient beings, no ancient and no modern.

Students do not understand because they cling to names and sayings. They are obstructed by the names ‘ordinary’ and ‘holy.’

All phenomena worldly and world-transcending are without a real fixed identity of their own, they have no inherent nature. There are just empty names, and names are empty too.

All Linji Yixuan quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Linji Yixuan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.