Sometimes, something as simple as reading and really listening to the right inspirational zen quotes can make all of the difference in your quality of life. If you are looking for some powerful Zen quotes that will help you calm your mind, then we have 55 truly outstanding quotes for you to consider.

What Zen Quotes Can Do For You

We are about to divulge 55 of our favorite Zen quotes, and these quotes are important because they can help you put your life in perspective. These quotes can help encourage you to open your mind, think differently about the difficulties that you face and even find the inner strength and focus to keep your anxious mind at ease.

How to Use Zen Quotes to Your Advantage

So, you have some inspirational Zen quotes to reference, but how do you use them to your advantage? We recommend putting your favorite quotes up somewhere you can see them everyday, or writing a different Zen quote in your planner for every day or every week.

The key is consistency with exposing yourself to these Zen quotes and to constantly make sure you are not only reading these quotes, but really thinking about our journaling about what they mean to you.

55 Zen Quotes on to Calm Your Mind

Here are 55 of our favorite Zen quotes that are designed to help calm your mind.

Zen Quotes on Inspiration

1. “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” Lao Tzu
2. “To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.” – Thich Nhat Hạnh
3. “The feeling that any task is a nuisance will soon disappear if it is done in mindfulness.” – Thich Nhat Hahn 
4. “Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.”– Zen Proverb
5. “Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”– Shunryu Suzuki
6. “Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” ― Buddha
7. “Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” – Jack Kornfield 
8. The basic principles of Zen teachings are to relax and be at utmost peace with oneself.  “Zen is not effort. Effort is tension, effort is work, effort is to achieve something. Zen is not something to achieve. You are already that. Just relax, relax so deeply that you become a revelation to yourself.”
9. “Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath.”- Huang Po
10. “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”– Eckhart Tolle
11. “The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.”– Koun Yamada

Zen Quotes on Finding Peace of Mind

12. “Let go, or be dragged.” Zen Proverb
13. “When thoughts arise, then do all things arise. When thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish.” Huang Po
14. “The noble-minded are calm and steady. Little people are forever fussing and fretting.” Confucius
15. “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.” – Eckhart Tolle
16. “To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you cannot eat.” – Suzuki Roshi
17. “The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.”– Ram Dass
18. Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. ― Dalai Lama
19. Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. ― Dalai Lama
20. Smile, breathe and go slowly. ― Thích Nhất Hạnh

Zen Quotes on Confidence

21. “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.” Confucius
22. “Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.” – Maezumi Roshi
23. “When I feel like dancing, I dance. I don’t care if anyone else is dancing or if everyone else is laughing at me. I dance.”– Rachel Danson
24. “All that we are, is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.” ― Buddha
25. “If you realize you have enough, you are truly rich.” ― Lao Tzu
26. “The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.” ― Shunryu Suzuki
27. “Act without expectation.” ― Lao Tzu
28. “Love is the absence of judgment.” ― Dalai Lama
29. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh
30. “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”- Alan Watts
31. “Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.”- Ramesh Balsekar
32. “There is no mistake in nature.”- Byron Katie

Zen Quotes on Putting Life in Perspective

33. “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” –Bodhidharma
34. “The real meditation is how you live your life.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
35. “Wise men don’t judge – they seek to understand.” –Wei Wu Wei
36. “One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.”– Dogen
37. “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”– Alan Watts
38. “Wisdom says we are nothing. Love says we are everything. Between these two our life flows.” – Jack Kornfield
39. “As a bee gathering nectar does not harm or disturb the color and fragrance of the flower; so do the wise move through the world.” – Buddha
40. “Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.”– Buddha
41. “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” ― Lao Tzu
42. “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” ― Dalai Lama
43. “Respect life, revere life. There is nothing more holy than life, nothing more divine than life.” ― Unknown
44. “This dew like life fades away; time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.” ― Dōgen Zenji
45. “If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!”- Thich Nhat Hanh
46. “At the still-point in the center of the circle one can see the infinite in all things.”– Chuang Tzu
47. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha 
48. “Surrender to what is. Let go of what was. Have faith in what will be.” – Sonia Ricotti
49. “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” – Thich Nhat Hahn 
50. “What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favourite day,” said Pooh. – A. A Milne
51. “When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.”– Shunryu Suzuki
52. “Do not follow the idea of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.” ― Dōgen Zenji
53. “And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.”– Seuss
54. “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” – Prema Chödrön
55. “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” – Sharon Salzberg

Conclusion

These Zen quotes are some of our favorite and some of the most powerful out there. Now that you have the quotes, it is up to you to start using them to your advantage.