Concepts Quote by Peter Matthiessen

“The Zen expression “Kill the Buddha!” means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.” quote by Peter Matthiessen — Download Open image

“The Zen expression “Kill the Buddha!” means to kill any concept of the Buddha as something apart from oneself.”

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.9 out of 5 (8 ratings)

More by Peter Matthiessen

Alec Wilkinson is a spare, clear, and lucid writer who works in stylistic simplicity with material that is not simple at all.

Peter Matthiessen

Image

Figures dark beneath their loads pass down the far bank of the river, rendered immortal by the streak of sunset upon their shoulders

Peter Matthiessen

Image

I think in any writing you're paying attention to detail.

Peter Matthiessen

Image

The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that…

Peter Matthiessen

Image

“...experience was static in the valley; it was older than time itself, for time was a thing of but two generations, dated by moons…

Peter Matthiessen

Image

“The central feature of the practice of meditation and hard work known as Zen is that, as Matthiessen says, it “has no patience with mysticism, far less the occult.” Nor does it have any time with moralism, the prescriptions or distortions we would impose on the world, obscuring it from our view. It asks, it insists rather, that we take…

Peter Matthiessen

Be light, light, light - full of light!

Peter Matthiessen

Image

For some time I watch the coming of the night? Above is the glistening galaxy of childhood, now hidden in the Western world by…

Peter Matthiessen

Image

“Nonfiction at its best is like fashioning a cabinet. It can be elegant and very beautiful but it can never be sculpture. Captive to facts—or predetermined forms—it cannot fly. Excepting those masters who transcend their craft—great medieval and Renaissance artisans, for example, or nameless artisans of traditional cultures as far back as the caves who were also spontaneous unselfconscious artists.…

Peter Matthiessen

Soon the child’s clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions, and abstractions. Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty…

Peter Matthiessen

“In the book of Job, the Lord demands, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” “I was there!”-surely that is the answer to God’s question. For no matter how the universe came into being, most of the atoms in these fleeting assemblies that we think of as our bodies have been in existence since the beginning.…

Peter Matthiessen

I meditate for the last time on this mountain that is bare, though others all around are white with snow. Like the bare peak of the koan, this one is not different from myself. I know this mountain because I am this mountain, I can feel it breathing at this moment, as its grass tops stray against the snows. If…

Peter Matthiessen

Explore all 99 Peter Matthiessen quotes

More Concepts quotes

Capability is just a concept of what is it we're looking at. Now how far we can go along that and what new capabilities…

Amartya Sen

Image

Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales where walking was part of the…

Roger Bannister

Image

What is music? Music is language. A human being wants to express ideas in this language, but not ideas that can be translated into…

Anton Webern

Image

We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our…

Steven Biko

Image

The whole concept of stage fright is fascinating. Actors get stage fright, but they wouldn't be on the stage in the first place if…

Robert Greene

Image

I do like talking with friends about big concepts, you know, the stuff that will ruin a party. To me, the party hasn't begun…

James Mercer

Image

You imagine that I look back on my life's work with calm satisfaction. But from nearby it looks quite different. There is not a…

Albert Einstein

Image

For a physicist mathematics is not just a tool by means of which phenomena can be calculated, it is the main source of concepts…

Freeman Dyson

Image

One of the most powerful concepts, one which is a sure cure for lack of confidence, is the thought that God is with you and helping you. This is one of the simplest teachings in religion, namely, that Almighty God will be your companion, will stand by you, help you, and see you through. No other idea is so powerful…

Norman Vincent Peale