Tetsugen Bernard Glassman Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

When we bear witness, when we become the situation - homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death - the right action arises by itself. We don't have to worry about what to do. We don't have to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we listen with our entire body and mind, loving action arises.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
Let me give you a wonderful Zen practice. Wake up in the morning...look in the mirror, and laugh at yourself.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
People get stuck a lot because they're afraid to act; in the worst case,...we get so attached to some end result that we can't function. We need help just to move on, only life doesn't wait.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
Don't make a whole to-do about it. Don't get down on yourself be- cause you're not an expert rower; don't start reading too many books in order to do it right.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
It's very rare to be in a state where there's nothing in, where you have no attachment to any idea or concept about yourself. In that state you've immediately raised the mind of compassion, because if nothing is in, everything is in, and you are now free to experience yourself as the world.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
We're creating a little niche for ourselves instead of working the whole canvas.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
Our work may be important, but we don't take it too seriously. Otherwise, we get attached to one relatively small thing and ignore the rest of life.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
I always tell people that if you get upset over what someone says, imagine him or her with a clown's nose on and you won't get so angry.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
When we don't ask, we don't let others give. When we fear rejection, we don't let generosity arise.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman
An English philosopher said that whatever is cosmic is also comic. Do the best you can and don't take it so seriously.

Tetsugen Bernard Glassman