The Zen Teaching of Huang Po Quotes

“Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. Only by acting thus can you earn the title of 'A Liberated One'.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Consider the sunlight. You may see it is near, yet if you follow it from world to world you will never catch it in your hands. Then you may describe it as far away and, lo, you will see it just before your eyes. Follow it and, behold, it escapes you; run from it and it follows you close. You can neither possess it nor have done with it. From this example you can understand how it is with the true Nature of all things and, henceforth, there will be no need to grieve or to worry about such things.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Observe things as they are and don't pay attention to other people. There are some people just like mad dogs barking at everything that moves, even barking when the wind stirs among the grass and leaves.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“If you wish to understand, know that a sudden comprehension comes when the mind has been purged of all the clutter of conceptual and discriminatory thought-activity. Those who seek the truth by means of intellect and learning only get further and further away from it. Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.1”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Where nothing is sought this implies Mind unborn; where no attachment exists, this implies Mind not destroyed; and that which is neither born nor destroyed is the Buddha.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Just let your minds become void and environmental phenomena will void themselves; let principles cease to stir and events will cease stirring of themselves.2”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“So you students of the Way should immediately refrain from conceptual thought.”
― P'ei Hsiu, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Obtaining no Dharma whatever is called Mind transmission. The understanding of this Mind implies no Mind and no Dharma.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“From thought-instant to thought-instant, no FORM; from thought-instant to thought-instant, no ACTIVITY—that is to be a Buddha! If you students of the Way wish to become Buddhas, you need study no doctrines whatever, but learn only how to avoid seeking for and attaching yourselves to anything.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“The eighty-four thousand methods for countering the eighty-four thousand forms of delusion are merely figures of speech for drawing people towards the Gate.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Relinquishment of everything is the Dharma, and he who understands this is a Buddha, but the relinquishment of ALL delusions leaves no Dharma on which to lay hold.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Ordinary people look to their surroundings, while followers of the Way look to Mind, but the true Dharma is to forget them both.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind

“Thus, the mind of the Bodhisattva is like the Void and everything is relinquished by it. When thoughts of the past cannot be taken hold of, that is relinquishment of the past. When thoughts of the present cannot be taken hold of, that is relinquishment of the present. When thoughts of the future cannot be taken hold of, that is relinquishment of the future. This is called utter relinquishment of Triple Time.”
― Huang Po, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind