Yamada Koun

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The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Self
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Someone who wants to attain enlightenment must be brave. He must rush into the crowd of enemies with a dagger. In the practice of Zen, enemies are our delusive thoughts and passions.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Passion
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Every moment is the manifestation of the whole. Life itself is, therefore, nothing but the continuous moment of the whole, and everybody is living the continuous moment of the whole.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Moments
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In the same way your life is the continuity of standing up, sitting down, laughing, sleeping, waking up, drinking, eating, and, of course, being born and dying. That is the continuity of the whole universe.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Drinking
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The entrance into Zen is the grasping of one's essential nature. It is absolutely impossible, however, to come to a clear understanding of our essential nature by any intellectual or philosophical method. It is accomplished only by the experience of self-realization through zazen.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Nature
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The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character.
- Yamada Koun
Collection: Character