“In art, the basic sense of delight and spontaneity in a person who has opened fully and thoroughly to themselves and to life can provide wonderful rainbows and thundershowers and gusts of wind. We don’t have to be tied down to the greasy-spoon world of well-meaning artists with their heavy-handed looks on their faces and overfed information in their brains. The basic idea of dharma art is the sense of peace and the refreshing coolness of the absence of neurosis.”

“Meditation is somewhat designed to experience life as it is. Meditating isn’t particularly a big deal. So you shouldn’t make a big deal about what happens in your meditation. It is part of your daily existence. You wouldn’t make a big deal about having had breakfast or that you had brushed your teeth.”

“Right mindfulness does not simply mean being aware; it is like creating a work of art. If you are drinking a cup of tea with right mindfulness, you are aware of the whole environment as well as the cup of tea. You can therefore trust what you are doing; you are not threatened by anything. You have room to dance in the space, and this makes it a creative situation. The space is open to you.”

“ Usually, if you have mental chatter, you call it your thoughts. But if you have deeply involved emotional chatter, you give it special prestige. You think those thoughts deserve the special privilege of being called emotion. Somehow, in the realm of actual mind, things don’t work that way. Whatever arises is just thinking: thinking you’re horny, thinking you’re angry. As far as meditation practice is concerned, your thoughts are no longer regarded as VIPs, while you meditate. You think, you sit; you think, you sit; you think, you sit. You have thoughts, you have thoughts about thoughts. Let it happen that way. Call them thoughts.”

“The whole philosophy of art is that you don’t try to be artistic but you just approach the objects as they are, and then the message comes automatically. You do the same thing in Japanese flower arrangements. You don’t try to be artistic; you just chop off certain twigs and certain branches which seem to be out of line with the flow. You just cut them off and then you put the remaining twigs there in the arrangement, and you put the flowers underneath, and it automatically becomes a whole landscape. Similarly, when you look at a painting by a great artist, it doesn’t look like someone actually painted it, but it just seemed to happen by itself. There’s no gap, no cracks at all. It’s one unit, complete.”

“According to the Buddha, no one can attain basic sanity and basic enlightenment without practicing meditation. You might be highly confused or you might be highly awakened and completely ready for the path. You might be emotionally disturbed and experiencing a sense of claustrophobia in relation to your world. Perhaps you are inspired by works of art you have done or the visual and audial aspects of works of art in general. You might be fat, thin, big, small, ntelligent, stupid — whatever you are, there is only one way, unconditionally, and that is to begin with the practice of meditation. The practice of meditation is THE and ONLY way. without that, there is no way out and no way in.”

“What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is — which produces an enormous spark. Something happens — clicks — and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music.”

“When realized artists work on their production, they are completely filled with what they are doing. At that level, a person doesn’t have any other mind than being an arist, 100%. Complete concentration is involved when somebody is executing a work of art. That is the mark of a master. The mark of genius is none other than that you put 100% of your being into the situation, and you can do so. It turns out to be seemingly almost accidental, as in Shakespeare’s work, especially his early work. He was almost to the level of being a hero by mistake, by a very fortunate mistake. In a positive sense, such a mistake is possible. It involves a lot of power and concentration as well. So we are talking about a sense of contact, a sense of concentration, and a sense of mindlessness when a person is executing a work of art of writing poetry. At the time that you are writing poetry, you don’t think. You just do it.”

“The practice of meditation consists of sitting practice as well as meditation in action in everyday life situations. This provides some guidance as to how to conduct your life and how to relate to a work of art... When a person becomes a Buddhist or a Buddhist-inspired person, you are already an artist; you are already a poet; you are already a painter; you are already a craftsman. We have to understand this, not only in terms of being arty, clever, resourceful or cunning, but in terms of the solidity [of discipline] in our life situation. We decide to step into the understanding that there is no ego, and we find that there is no maker of ego either. Such a brave step seems to be necessary. To begin with, it is necessary to emphasize this solid ground [of egolessness and discipline] again and again. Sometimes we find ourselves inspired, but we find it very difficult to be grounded. We have to watch our step very carefully. If things are presented to you in a dramatic way or a fantastic way, there is something else to look into. A sense of stillness, a sense of austerity and a sense of solidity are very important. I would like to present the difficult way to you first, because there is enormous value in that. The hinayana or basic discipline is extremely valuable and necessary before we go beyond.”

“In the practice of meditation, we neither encourage emotions nor repress them. By seeing them clearly, by allowing them to be as they are, we no longer permit them to serve as a means of entertaining and distracting us. Thus, they become the inexhaustible energy that fulfills egoless action.”

“The idea of enlightenment is born out of confusion. Because somebody is confused, there is the other aspect that contrasts with that confusion, which is enlightenment. We have to approach this scientifically: if confusion exists, then enlightenment exists, therefore confusion exists. We have to work with this polarity.”

“Whether you are happy or sad, whether you are exuberantly joyful or miserable, it’s still an anxious world we’re living in. According to Buddhist tradition, anxieties can be transformed into mindfulness and awareness. Anxiety itself can be a reminder, a nudge that keeps waking us up again and again. ”

“Symbolism is a question of gaining new sight. It is being extremely inquisitive to see things in their own nature, not always wanting to change things. The opposite of symbolic vision is resentment, fear, and too much philosophy. You want to change the whole world. But you could take a different attitude, seeing things as they are in their own value, their own spaciousness.”

“The fickleness of thoughts occurs continuously in our state of mind. There is the birth of a thought and the death of a thought, a gap or space, and then another birth and death. This happens all the time, every two thousandth of a second or so. The moment when this gap occurs is the ultimate state. It is the origin, and it is where birth and death are dissolved. ”

“Waiting and letting what arises reflect within our intelligence is the meditation practice. It is like letting a pond settle down so the true reflection can be seen. There are already so many mental activities going on constantly. Adding further mental activities does not sharpen intelligence. The only way is just to let the intelligence develop, grow. ”

“Empty-hearted awareness refers to a sense of the rug being pulled out from under your feet, along with a sense of nondwelling—not exactly a sense of floating, but of nondwelling. It’s a stillness, not a pulsating, flickering kind of thing. It is as though you have suddenly been exploded and then you dissolved into the atmosphere. It is sort of an evaporation of something or other. ”