Zen has a pronounced iconoclastic tendency, and regards the study of texts, doctrines, and dogmas as a potential hindrance to spiritual awakening, relying instead on humour, spontaneity, unconventionality, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression to communicate the idea of enlightenment

Damien Keown
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grassthe world is too full to talk about. - Jalaluddin Rumi
  2. The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion. - Alan W. Watts
  3. Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. - Ray Bradbury
  4. Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar - Jim Butcher
  5. Life is more or less a lie, but then again, that's exactly the way we want it to be. - Bob Dylan
More Quotes By Damien Keown
  1. By learning to observe without becoming involved, the pattern of stimulus-response which underlies most human behaviour can be broken. Little by little the realisation dawns that one is free to choose how to react in all situations … The grip of long-standing habits is weakened...
  2. This … perception of impermanence … gives rise to the knowledge that even those things which seem most intimate to us — such as our emotions — are transient states which come and go. … From … detached observation it … becomes clear that even...
  3. Individuals create themselves through their moral choices. By freely and repeatedly choosing certain sorts of things, an individual shapes their character, and through their character their future.
  4. All living creatures are entitled to respect in their own right, not simply because of the utility they may possess for other humans.
  5. Zen has a pronounced iconoclastic tendency, and regards the study of texts, doctrines, and dogmas as a potential hindrance to spiritual awakening, relying instead on humour, spontaneity, unconventionality, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression to communicate the idea of enlightenment
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