Monk Quotes

“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”
― Ryokan

“Man of an hard heart! Hear me, Proud, Stern, and Cruel! You could have saved me; you could have restored me to happiness and virtue, but would not! You are the destroyer of my Soul; You are my Murderer, and on you fall the curse of my death and my unborn Infant’s! Insolent in your yet-unshaken virtue, you disdained the prayers of a Penitent; But God will show mercy, though you show none. And where is the merit of your boasted virtue? What temptations have you vanquished? Coward! you have fled from it, not opposed seduction. But the day of Trial will arrive! Oh! then when you yield to impetuous passions! when you feel that Man is weak, and born to err; When shuddering you look back upon your crimes, and solicit with terror the mercy of your God, Oh! in that fearful moment think upon me! Think upon your Cruelty! Think upon Agnes, and despair of pardon!”
― Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk

“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are.”
― Matthieu Ricard

“Happiness is an illusion, Natalie. It doesn't actually exist."

"Of course it does," I said. "It's what you feel when you're not sad."

"That's unconsciousness. And I'm pretty sure that I'm miserable when I am unconscious, too.”
― Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk on the Couch

“For several centuries, the Celtic church of Ireland was spared the Greek dualism of matter and spirit. They regarded the world with the clear vision of faith. When a young Celtic monk saw his cat catch a salmon swimming in shallow water, he cried, "The power of the Lord is in the paw of the cat!”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

“All Julie has to do is explain to her friends that she's using it to individually seal each item that she throws out."
"Then they'd think she was a geek," I said.
"She will thank me later," Monk said.
"Why would she thank you for being considered a geek?"
"Don't you know anything about teenage life?" Monk said. "It's a badge of respect."
"It is?"
"I was one," he said.
"You don't say."
"A very special one. I was crowned King of the Geeks, not once, but every single year of high school," Monk said. "It's a record that remains unbroken in my school to this day."
"Were there a lot of students who wanted to be King of the Geeks?"
"It's like being homecoming king, only better. You don't have to go to any dances," Monk said. "You aren't even invited.”
― Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop

“He skims through the speech he prepared (for the 50th Independence day):

… Before the Apocalypse, the system gave us a goal, forcing us to exhaustion at the end of the day. We had no time to look inside. The system was a slave-reproduction module where we thought we were free. With time lost, we lost our only chance of final evolution at the end of our one life …

… The system succeeded, enough to turn talents into machines, warriors into lazy citizens, knights into faithful slaves, writers and artists into pets and trophies. They succeeded, and they laughed. But not after the Apocalypse. Not after the War. We fought. We lost many, but we won through evolution. Now, things are different. Now things are better …

Bullshit!—Yuan stops at this point. Too many lies!
Nothing has changed.
Nothing is better.
How can a monk with a voice lie? Moreover, a war hero favoring the Apocalypse—too dark! What was he thinking last night?

“Delete all of it,” he mutters sternly.”
― Misba, The High Auction

“Peaceful and kind one monk is more valuable than violent and rude ten thousand men!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Beyond Evidence and Ignorance
(Monk Scientist Sonnet)

I'm sorry, I cannot live a single cultural,
single lingual, single scriptural existence.
I want all the cultures and languages,
I want all the scriptures and sciences.

I am the epitome of reason founded on love,
beyond the grasp of either establishment.
I don't need to be popular in either cult,
I live as lamp to the world not another lamb.

I am a scientist aware of facts,
I also accept faith as a right.
My struggle is again't intolerance,
not to pamper either side's narrow sight.

I once set out as a monk, that journey has
kept the scientist grounded in tolerance.
My truth is love, not belief or disbelief,
not coldened by evidence or blinded by ignorance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Little Planet on The Prairie: Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim

“Godmind, Sonnet 2101

Come, look into my eyes,
you'll smell the soil from Tabriz,
chiming with the whirlwind of Konya.
Come, peer into my endless abyss,
fused with the fragrance of Bethlehem,
you'll feel the breeze from Bodh Gaya.

Don't be intimidated, just let it go,
let the chaff of creed become compost.
The vastness I live is the vastness in you,
yet it seems alien, for you're grazing like cod.

Nothing's out there except our image,
whatever is there, is right here.
Origin of universe is too stoic an undertaking,
you just act human, right now and here.

If boson is god particle of the universe,
human is the god particle of society.
Life is divine, when instrument of love,
human is the heart particle of humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“New Year's Eve is the occasion
to take stock of your origin,
so that in the reign of new dawn,
you don't forget where you come from.

I too have evolved plenty, from a
dropout engineer to monk to scientist.
But I didn't stop at scientist, and
evolved further into poet dervish.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“My life is neither faith based nor fact based, my life is love based.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Azad Earth Army: When The World Cries Blood

“This fallen world is not going to provide you with the proof of God’s love. Only faith will. And to have faith, you have to become like a madman in the eyes of this world. Just keep in mind that the world itself is mad. And so, to be a madman, according to the judgement of a mad world, is, in fact, to be perfectly sane. So, if that’s what it takes, then be mad. Be mad and reject the demonic whispers of the Devil that tells you Christ does not love you. Reject the fallen logic of this world that tells you Christ does not love you. Reject the wisdom of your fallen mind, reject the emotions of your fallen heart. For both will tell you at various moments in your life that Christ does not love you. Learn not to listen to them. Learn to be blind to them. Learn to be dead to them. There is a very good reason why Christ says one can only open to real life when one has rejected and lost this fallen life.”
― Fr. Seraphim Aldea

“One monk recorded the working of what he called the ‘noonday demon’ that struck between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. At this time the monk was supposed to be working, but this particular demon would thwart him and make ‘it seem that the sun barely moves, if at all, and that the day is fifty hours long. Then he constrains the monk to look constantly out the windows, to walk outside the cell, to gaze carefully at the sun to determine how far it stands from the ninth hour’ – the hour of dinner. The demon might then force the monk to poke his head out of his cell to see if any other brethren are about. Then, in the warmth of the noonday sun, the monk finds that he ‘rubs his eyes and stretches his hands, and he takes his eyes off his book and stares at the wall. Then he returns to the book and reads a little. As he unfolds it, he becomes preoccupied with the condition of the texts . . . he criticizes the orthography and the decoration. Finally, he folds the book up and places it under his head, and he falls into a light sleep.”
― Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

“LIII

Abbott Palladiud said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO

“LIII

Abbott Palladius said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO

“LXXIV

One of the Fathers said: Just as it is impossible for a man to see his face in troubled water, so too the soul, unless it be cleansed of alien thoughts, cannot pray to God in contemplation.”
― Thomas Merton

“ஏனப்பா, உலக சிந்தையில்லாமல் ஏன் இருக்கணும்? அவருக்குத் தெரிஞ்சிக்கிற சித்திகளை வைத்து உலகத்தினுடைய வறுமையைப் போக்கிவிடக்கூடாதோ?"

"அந்த மாதிரி உண்மையான பெரியவன் செய்ய மாட்டாண்டா, பாபு. அவனவன் தன்னாலேதான் முன்னுக்கு வரணும் இந்த உலகத்திலே. எல்லோரும் சோம்பேறியாக இருப்பதற்கு பெரியவர்கள் வழிகாட்டமாட்டார்கள்; இடம் பண்ணிவைக்கமாட்டார்கள்; முன்னேறுகிறதுக்கு வெளிச்சம் காண்பிப்பார்கள். அவ்வளவுதான். முன்னேறுகிறதும் பின்தங்குகிறதும் நம் பொறுப்பு. நாலு பேராவது முன்னேறுவார்கள். உலகத்தில் உயர்த்தி ஒரு நிலையிலே கொண்டு வைத்துவிட்டு அப்புறம் மறைந்துவிடுவார்கள்.”
― Thi Janakiraman

“First time someone broke my heart, I dropped out of engineering and emerged as the Monk Scientist. Second time when I lost my love, Planet Earth received the Poet Apocalypse.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“I dropped out of computer engineering, and became Monk Scientist, to humanize the divine and divinize the human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“I have nothing to lose, no reputation, no image, no class.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Sometimes I'm Dervish, sometimes Advaita, and the Brain Scientist keeps out the superstition.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“I wear the same casual outfit everywhere, pair of jeans with a shirt or tshirt - people wear fancy clothes either to look and feel good, or impress others, I have no need for either, so I walk like beggar.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Vanity and validation are for the small of mind,
Himalayan Human has no need for cosmetic adornment.
The Sun is beyond the realms of humility and hubris,
I'm neither humble nor hubrous, just burning with mission.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“The Sun is beyond the realms of humility and hubris, I'm neither humble nor hubrous, just burning with mission.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“I wear the same casual outfit everywhere, pair of jeans with a shirt or tshirt - people wear fancy clothes either to look and feel good, or impress others, I have no need for either, so I walk like beggar.

Vanity and validation are for the small of mind, Himalayan Human has no need for cosmetic adornment. The Sun is beyond the realms of humility and hubris, I'm neither humble nor hubrous, just burning with mission.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“The Beggar King (Sonnet 2314)

I wear the same casual outfit everywhere,
pair of jeans with a shirt or tshirt -
people wear fancy clothes either to
look and feel good, or impress others,
I have no need for either, so I walk like beggar.

Vanity and validation are for the small of mind,
Himalayan Human has no need for cosmetic adornment.
The Sun is beyond the realms of humility and hubris,
I'm neither humble nor hubrous, just burning with mission.

I wear my backbone as battery, brain is my currency,
heart is my bedrock, character is my legacy.
I see neither man nor woman, I only see human;
I see neither rich nor poor, I only see behavior.

Savages are known by aristocratic opulence,
Sapiens is known by vagrant virtue-n-valiance.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Call me pilgrim or call me beggar,
you be my Shams, I, your Mevlana.
Call me neuro or call me nigger,
to some I'm Valium, to others Viagra.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“For example, a monk’s celibacy might armor the pelvis. It blocks orgasmic release and reinforces emotional numbness. Reich’s solution was orgastic potency. This is the ability to fully surrender to orgasm. It dissolves armor and restores vitality.”
― Laurence Galian, Crossing the Forbidden Highway: The Untold Story of Orgone, Body Therapy, and Suppressed Emotion