Quotes from Alex Kerr

Creo que lo único que quieres hacer cuando realmente has amado algo es transmitir su recuerdo a otros.

Tatemae is a charming attitude when it means that everyone should look at the other way at a guest's faux pas in the tearoom; it has dangerous and unpredictable results when applied to corporate balance sheets, drug testing, and nuclear-power safety reports.

Nunca corras directo al centro. La manera adecuada de contemplar un mandalas es, en primer lugar, entrenando tus pensamientos sobre los budas que custodian las puertas de su periferia. Una vez franqueado ese umbral, poco a poco te adentra en el interior, dando vueltas y vueltas en círculos cada vez más estrechos hasta que llegas al centro.

The emperor of China asked his court painter, «What's easy to paint and what's hard to paint?» and the answer was «Dogs are difficult, demons are easy.»

Dogs and horses are difficult; demons and fascinating things are easy". The idea is that painting dogs and horses is difficult because they are so ordinary; demons and grotesque objects, on the other hand, are quite easily depicted.

Gyo(?) You practice; you reach a new level; and then you practice again.

Gyo ? ('practice' and also 'to practice') is what monks undergo in their training inside the temple; it's an ordeal, a trial to be mastered. And it never ends. You practice; you reach a new level; and then you practice again.

Sunyata, in contrast to rupa, is the realm of pure spirituality, hovering beyond everything material. It's quiet, pure, empty. It's the nothingness that seems to be at the core of subatomic particles; it's the big blank that's left at the moment of death.

No foreign architect of stature, such as I. M. Pei, resides in Japan. Foreign architects come to Japan on short-term contracts, erect a skyscraper or a museum, and then leave. But subtle and sophisticated approaches to services and design—the core elements of modern building technology—cannot be transmitted in this way. Japan is left with the empty shells of architectural ideas, the hardware without the software.