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About this quote

What does it mean?
Zen is not something you find on a mountain; you bring it with you.
In plain terms
Your mindset creates the Zen you experience.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate inner calm before seeking it elsewhere.

Where it applies

  • traveling
  • stressful work

Putting it to work

  • practice meditation
  • maintain focus

Questions to consider

  • What inner qualities do you carry into new places?
  • How can you keep Zen amid distraction?

Another view

External environments can still influence your inner state.

More from Robert M. Pirsig

  1. Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.

    Permalink to quote #93
  2. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

    Permalink to quote #95
  3. Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you a thirty thousand page menu, and no food.

    Permalink to quote #92

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