Parking Lot Bouquet, Summer, 2010
“The problem with our self-image is that we don’t see it for what it really is: a useful fiction. The idea that our self-image is something permanent and substantial is so basic to us that we would probably never even think to question it.”
“The truth comes when you can see that your self-image is just a convenient reference point and nothing more, and that you as you had imagined yourself do not exist.”
“That one bubble we watched will never appear again.”
“Sort out your misunderstanding of time and all your problems go away. Just like that.”
“We harbor some inexplicable fear that if we start to enjoy everything about life without picking and choosing we might cease to exist.”
“World peace happens when no one fires guns at anyone anymore.”
“You create the cause and you experience the effect.”
“To cause another living being pain isn’t evil – it’s just stupid. Because that being is you.”
“The degree of your delusion determines how long it takes to notice the effects you’ve created.”
“Stop the racist, gay-bashing Nazis from going to war to club baby seals in the burning South American rainforests if you want – but also clean your room.”
“That’s the easiest way to tell the real teachers from the phonies: a phony will take your authority and a real teacher will give it back.”
“It’s a frightening thing to be truly honest with yourself. It means you have no one left to turn to anymore, no one to blame, and no one to look to for salvation. You have to give up any possibility that there will ever be any refuge for you. You have to accept the reality that you are truly and finally on your own. The best thing you can hope for in life is to meet a teacher who will smash all of your dreams, dash all of your hopes, tear your teddy-bear beliefs out of your arms and fling them over a cliff.”
“Believe only in the universe as it is right now. See the world and yourself for what they are. Don’t be deceived by your imagination no matter how beautiful it is.”
“You can transform your life, and it is imperative that you do it. Because only you can do it. No guru can make your life right. No Zen master can show you the way. Only you have the power to make this place you’re living in right now a realm so beautiful even God himself couldn’t dream of anything better. And doing this will transform the universe.”
“And our ordinary, boring, pointless lives are incredibly, amazingly, astoundingly, relentlessly, mercilessly joyful.”
“Your life is yours alone, and to miss your life is the most tragic thing that could happen.”
Quotes from
Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies & the Truth About Reality
By Brad Warner
