Bill Porter Quotations

When you are free of form and not confused, you are focused. To be free of form externally is 'Zen.' Not to be confused internally is 'meditation.' External Zen and internal meditation, this is what we mean by 'Zen meditation.

This building we're in has doors and windows. If we close the doors and windows, we can't get out. People lock themselves inside a house of delusions. But they're only delusions. They can leave anytime. Actually there is no house to leave. There's not even any leaving. What we see are flowers in the sky, the moon in the water. As for the meditative powers of Zen masters like Hsu-yun, sometimes it's useful to meditate and sometimes it isn't.

When you're blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being. When you're aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha.

Reading texts is no substitute for meditation and practicing Zen. If you read a book about a place, and you want to go there, you don't keep reading the book. You have to travel. That's what practice is about. Traveling. Walking the path.

Every place is a place to practice. Every time is a time to practice. Zen is concerned with the thought we have this moment rather than with rituals or rules of behavior

In the face of impermanence, if your next thought is good, this is what we call the realization body.

There is so much baggage we burden ourselves with over the years that keeps us from seeing things the way they are. Some baggage we carry with us for a single thought, some for years, and some for lifetimes. But there isn't one piece that isn't our own creation.

The world has no hold on you. Whatever has a hold on you comes from your mind.

I had just retired and was not sure what I was going to do. I hadn't played (softball) in 35 years. The last time was in the service; pickup games in Vietnam when it was safe to do so.

While you can sell a hot car designed for younger buyers to an old guy, you can't sell a stodgy old car to a young guy.

Usually the soft elements rank higher than the cost. They may not pick the cheapest. We've seen this in many cases.

We seem to get busier every year. We continue to push ahead to be one of the top courses in the state.

We had a terrific fourth quarter and finished 2005 with good momentum. Our product portfolio is very competitive, our new initiatives such as kits and segmentation are starting to ramp, and our enterprise approach is winning with customers.

They can be very dangerous. They're scary places. One thing you can't argue with is, they're cheaper to build. They would not be my first choice if I were on staff or an inmate. There's an awful lot that can go on in there that can't be detected.