Zen Quotes on Impermanence & Change
12 real, sourced lines — every attribution checked
Everything changes — Zen does not say this to sadden you, but to return you to the only moment that holds still. Lines on passing things, falling blossoms, and the freedom inside flux.
The quotes
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
“It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.”
“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.”
“Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.”
“A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.”
— Dogen
“Time flies swifter than an arrow; life is more transient than the dew on the grass.”
— Dogen
“Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again.”
— Dogen
“You are the sky. Everything else — it's just the weather.”
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”
“When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something.”
“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.”
More themes
Letting Gothe Present MomentInner PeaceStillness & SilenceAcceptanceSimplicity & the Ordinary LifeAll themes →
One teaching like this each morning — and Mu, a companion who remembers your path.
Get Mushin · free