Akṣapāda > Quotes

“No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them, we may forget altogether to live them.”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“A living body is not a fixed thing but a flowing event, like a flame or a whirlpool: the shape alone is stable, for the substance is a stream of energy going in at one end and out at the other. We are particularly and temporarily identifiable wiggles in a stream that enters us in the form of light, heat, air, water, milk, bread, fruit, beer, beef Stroganoff, caviar, and pate de foie gras. It goes out as gas and excrement - and also as semen, babies, talk, politics, commerce, war, poetry, and music. And philosophy.”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“We usually don't look. We overlook.”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“You must accept the fact that there is no help but self-help. I cannot tell you how to gain freedom since freedom exists within you.”
― Akṣapāda, The Dragon’s Wisdom - Bruce Lee Philosophy: 494 Amulets of the Martial Art legend

“The”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“You must not be afraid of playing wrong notes. Just forget it, play it wrong! But play!”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“In life as well as in art Zen never wastes energy in stopping to explain; it only indicates.”
― Akṣapāda, Tao of Alan Watts: 444 Expressions of Zen

“A teacher cannot give you the truth The truth is already in you. You only need to open yourself – body, mind and heart- so that his or her teachings will penetrate your own seeds of understanding and enlightenment If you let the words enter you, the soil and the seeds will do the rest of the work”
― Akṣapāda, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Pebbles of Peace: 707 Stones Polished with Wisdom