An ounce of practice is better than tons of theories.
The affairs of the world will go on forever, do not delay the practice of meditation. Once you have met with the profound instructions from a meditation master, with single-pointed determination, set about realizing the Truth.
Do not crave to know more and more, rather practice to get perfection and through the instruction of the guru, eventually, everything will become clear.
Meditation is not sitting and fidgeting, daydreaming, worrying, or fantasizing. It means watching, calmly observing the mind itself. Calm observation makes the mind itself calmer. The calmness of the mind creates power to go deeper and deeper into the beds of samskaras, into all the latent memories and impressions that daily provoke our habits and personalities. However, by calmly and very quietly going to the samskaras and observing them they are burnt away; they bubble to the surface and dissipate. This is the process of purification. It is a very powerful practice, and an essential one. Meditation is the exact method of becoming aware of who you are. It is the fundamental training for knowing your inner world.
If your practice is good, you may become proud of it. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn the literature of the whole world - all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls.
You know your real nature [to be divine]. You are the king and play you are a beggar. . . . It is all fun. Know it and play. That is all there is to it. Then practice it. The whole universe is a vast play.
Devote yourself sincerely to spiritual practice. You must enter into the inner life.
So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.
It does not matter, if life departs from the physical body. I must practice Kriya with all my heart.
Till Bhishma (grandfather of Kaurava and Pandava), that is, fear (in the light of Kriya Bhisma means fear of practicing Kriya), receives three arrows, that is, ida, pingala and susumna in his head (unite in the Kutastha), never becomes Sthira, tranquil; One should practice Kriya courageously.
Regular practice of yoga can help you face the turmoil of life with steadiness and stability.
This practice of yoga is to remove the weeds from the body so that the garden can grow.
I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.
Breathing is important in the practice of meditation because it is the faculty in us that is simultaneously voluntary and involuntary. You can feel that you are breathing, and equally you can feel that it is breathing you. So it is a sort of bridge between the voluntary world and the involuntary world — a place where they are one.
To comprehend the subtle spiritual truth, citta (memory) must be free from impurities and imbalances through the practice of meditation. Only in this way can one enter into the state of realization.
Only by magnetizing your spine, you can change your life force into a radiant, all-accomplishing divine force which in turn hastens your mental, physical and intellectual regeneration and rejuvenation. You do not have to go to the astrologer or the palmist. Through Kriya yoga practice, each chakra is purified, giving you all-round development. Each chakra has an invisible counterpart in every body part, and if you practice daily and sincerely, you will achieve quick spiritual evolution.
If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.
Zen is really extraordinarily simple as long as one doesn't try to be cute about it or beat around the bush! Zen is simply the sensation and the clear understanding... that there is behind the multiplicity of events and creatures in this universe simply one energy -- and it appears as you, and everything is it. The practice of Zen is to understand that one energy so as to "feel it in your bones."
We must patiently practice every day.
Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen everyday life, and everyday life zazen.
Knowledge without practice is useless. Practice without knowledge is dangerous.
The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice.