One of my favorite Zen puzzles, otherwise known as koans, is: “Things are not as they seem, nor are they otherwise.”

It’s a reminder that life always has two sides. The side of personal perception is the way things seem to us from the position we’re looking from. Every vantage point has its built in biases and is never the whole picture. The other side is the whole picture that includes everything beyond what we see - beyond what they seem.

The answer to this and most koans is that there is no way out. Our view is always limited by the point in time and space we’re in. This view is always real, valid, and accurate for what it is. And there is always more. This explains why we are smarter together; that truth lives in the intersection of curiosity and conversation.

Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise.

That 'simple desire' to share something meant that we could enter the world of language without words, where everything is always clear and there is no danger of being misinterpreted.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.

The best things in life are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that.

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.

A healthy mind has an easy breath.

Breathing is the greatest pleasure in life

Smile, breathe and go slowly.

For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth.