Timeless Wisdom

Nothing to Achieve, Nowhere to Go

Only our searching for happiness
prevents us from seeing it.
It's like a vivid rainbow
which you pursue without ever catching,
or a dog chasing its own tail.

Nothing to do or undo,
nothing to force,
nothing to want,
and nothing is missing.
			Lama Gendun Rinpoche

To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search.
If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao.
			Confucious 

You are all Buddhas.
There is nothing that you need to achieve.
Just open your eyes.
			Siddhartha Gautama

When I attained Absolute Perfect Enlightenment,
I attained absolutely nothing. That is why it is
called 'Absolute Perfect Enlightenment.'
  
I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled,
complete awakening, and for this very reason it
is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.'
			Siddhartha Gautama,
			Two translations of text
			from the Vajracchedika

Reciting mantras or contemplating mind
Are merely herbs for polishing a mirror. 
When the dust is removed, 
They are also wiped away. 
			Han Shan Te Ch’ing
			(1546-1623)

Truth is a country without road.
			J. Krishnamurti

Wanderer, there is no path. You lay a path in walking.
			A Spanish poet

When you speak of a path, where are you now? And where
do you want to go? If these are known, then we can talk
of a path. Know first where you are and what you are.
There is nothing to be reached. There is no goal to be
reached. There is nothing to be attained. The conception
that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the
goal or peace always. You are the Self. You exist always.
			Sri Ramana Maharshi 

The real way circulates everywhere; 
how could it require 
practice or enlightenment? 
The essential teaching is fully available; 
how could effort be necessary? 
Furthermore, the entire mirror is 
free of dust; why take steps to polish it? 
Nothing is separate from this 
very place; why journey away? 
			Dogen (1200-1253)

To reach truth is not to accumulate knowledge, but
to awaken to the heart of reality.  Reality reveals itself
complete and whole at the moment of awakening. In the
light of awakening, nothing is added and nothing is lost.
			Thich Nhat Hanh
			Zen Keys, p. 44

This is what enlightenment is all about: a deep
understanding that there is no problem. Then, with no
problem to solve, what will you do? Immediately you
start living. You will eat, you will sleep, you will
love, you will work, you will have a chit-chat, you
will sing, you will dance. What else is there to do? 
			Osho

There is really nothing you must be.
And there is nothing you must do.
There is really nothing you must have.
And there is nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.

However, it helps to understand that fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet.
			Japanese Zen scroll