Process, not Outcome

You must not be attached to the outcome, but only give yourself - one hundred percent - to the process.

-Richard Chun, Taekwondo Spirit and Practice: Beyond Self-Defense

Counting Colors

Creating systems and categories is not unlike counting the colors of a rainbow -- both merely detract from our experience of reality, while at the same time limiting our appreciation of the world's richness. And to declare something right or wrong is similarly nearsighted.

-Thomas Hoover, The Zen Experience

Rational Analysis

...as Americans, our downfall is twofold: our propensity to be too analytical and our rationalism. Too many years of psychoanalysis and Freudian thought has caused us to categorize everything in terms of fact and myth, not realizing, as the Chinese did, that they are one and the same. If we are to understand and practice the teachings of Tao, these two failings must be remedied.

-Stuart Alve Olson, The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic: The Taoist Guide to Health, Longevity, and Immortality

Common Bonds

If we train our mind to look deeper and to recognize that each person is just like us in wanting happiness and not wanting pain, then we will feel a common bond with everyone and will be able to wish everyone well equally. Needless to say, such an attitude must be cultivated over time. ... We are creatures of habit and need to put effort into pulling ourselves out of habitual judgments, emotional responses, and behaviors towards others. Each moment of our life is a new one with the opportunity to experiment and do things differently.

-Thubten Chodron, Buddhism for Beginners

Prolonged Warfare

There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.

-Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Lionel Giles Translation)

The Way of the Sage

The Taoists of the Tao-te ching were not social dropouts. For them, the sage was an individual who understood the natural way of things (the Tao) and lived in harmony with it; therefore, changes in society must come from changes within individuals, and changes in individuals could come only from following the principles of the Tao.

-Eva Wong, Taoism: An Essential Guide

Gifts of Fate

When you discover your genuine gift, you are simultaneously seized by your fate.

-John Maki Evans, Kurikara: The Sword and the Serpent