Netflix didn't have the first season, but I'm all the way through the second season and starting on the third. I'll come back and update periodically

 

 

Episode 1

 

We learn these things to teach the body to become one with the mind.

 

You look to other for your own freedom.

 

Which is truly the prisoner? The fly which, moving freely, enters unknown danger? Or the spider which, having spun it's web, remains, never knowing the pleasure or the danger of the fly?

 

 

Learn first how to live, learn next how not to kill, learn third how to live with death, learn fourth how to die.

 

Is not painting the joyful reaching out of a man so filled with beauty that there is not room enough in him to contain it?

 

To know love, be like a running brook, which while deaf, yet sings its melody for others to hear. Feel  the pain of too much tenderness. Aawait at dawn witih winged heart, and give thanks for yet another day of loving. Empty yourself, and yet be filled.

 

Launched, the arrow has no choice but to hit its target, yet without the bow, the arrow is but the empty promise of flight.

 

Episode 3: The Chalice

 

I wish to own nothing so that I will be owned by nothing (the Franciscan Priests)

 

A wise man walks with his head bowed, humble, like the dust

 

The universe contains a certain pebble called the earth, and many men have formed attachments to it, no less foolish than yours

 

That we are possessed by what we would possess: Held in bondage to earth and vested things by the attachments we form for them...even so holy a thing as a chalice, so slight a thing as a pebble

 

Episode 4: El Brujo

 

The undiscerning mind is like the root of a tree: It absorbs equally all that it touches, even the poison that would kill it.

 

Be like the mirror: Allow no evil to pass through you; reflect it to its source. Then you shall be safe. Go and sleep, grasshopper.

 

Episode 5: The Squawman

 

If you found the flame of a candle struggling to survive, what would you do? Free it, from it's own wax? Does a man's life deserve less?

 

Episode 6: The Spirit Helper

 

O Great Spirit, Whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath I see in the morning mist, o come, spirit helper. Come now with the rising sun. O shield of sun, fulfill my vision quest. Long have I sent up the arrows of my prayers to you. Send your spirit helper to reveal to me the mysteries you have hidden in every leaf and rock, in every stream and living creature. Come, spirit helper.

 

To be a man is to be one with the universe. Ask not What is the universe? Ask rather, what is not the universe? It is in your eye, and in your heart. As the seed of the peach contains the fragrance of the flower and the substance of the fruit, even the bitter pit at its core.

 

The Great One, wishing to visit all that which He had made, cut a small opening in the sky. Through it, He puched rocks, snow and ice, until the mountains grew so high that He could reach the earth. As the stepping stone of the sun chief, the mountain is sacred.

 

Is not a son the love of a father and a mother, and the life they gave him? A design of the universe he must fulfill if he is to be a man.

 

When you extinguish the flame, is there now more or less light in the chamber? Is it not more important to find yourself than a killer of men? Would your parents not wish you to go forward to life and light, rather than backward to death and darkness?

 

You find yourself by taking the path that leads to the truth...I can only point the way, grasshopper. You must walk the path yourself.

 

I too have been taught to reverence all life. For there, as you know, is nahi: Soul, in all things. Animals, rocks, and trees, wind, and rain. Life that is perfect, and more free from the weaknesses of man. And so, because man is weak, the Great One has made all these things to help him survive.

 

Did you not tell me that the Indian reveres all life? And you believe that the Great One gave life to us all? What man has the right to take from another the gift given by the Great One?

 

Revenge is a double edged sword: Either you will be killed, or you will kill yourself by the certain suicide of your spirit.

The wheel of life is turned inexorably by the infinte stars And so it is, the truth will not be cheated

 

Observe the day lilly: Each morning with the warmth of the sun, it opens in lovely blossom. Each night, it closes. Once, your anger warmed you, and, like the flower, you opened to it. That is long past. It is night. Be now like still water, for like glass, still water is the perfect level. The heart of a wise man is tranquil and still. Thus, it is the mirror of Heaven and Earth. The glass of everything. Be like still water. You look into it and see yourself.

 

Is it not better to embrace the living than to avenge the dead?

 

Episode 7: The Tong

 

Evil cannot be conquered in the world, it can only be resisted within one's self.

 

Does a rich man hoarde his goods? Do wise men dispute over small matters?

 

Matthew 5:39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

 

Lao Tzu: "A wise man does not contend, therefore no one can contend against him. Yield, and overcome"

 

You think wisdom is like a flower for you to pluck; it is a mountain, and it must be climbed.

 

To a guy who wants to kill him: Either one of our deaths will be misfortune for both of us.

 

No man has fear until fear comes to him

 

If a man lives, it is a certainty that he will die. Therefore, it is foolish to think of death as if he were a foe to be vanquished. He will come when he will come.

 

Episode 8: The Salamander

 

Is it not better to see yourself truly than care about how others see you?

 

Episode 10: The Hoots

 

Curiousity is the beginning of wisdom.

 

The purpose of discipline is to live more fully, not less

 

The bird sings in the forest. Does it seek to be admired for its song? Let tears come when your heart tells you of its sadness. Let joy come unasked, unplanned.

 

Acts 2: 44-45 All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

 

It is written: Shape clay into a vessel; It is the space within that gives it value. Place doors and windows in a house; it is the opening that brings light within. Set spokes within a wheel; it is the emptiness of the hub that makes them useful. Therefore, be the space at the center: Be nothing, and you will have everything to give to others.

 

It is written in the Tao Te Ching: Under heaven, all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil. Therefore, having and not having arise together, difficult and easy complement each other, high and low rest upon each other, front and back follow one another. Would you make the whole world a temple? Be like the sun...? And what is within you will warm the earth...

 

Episode 11: The Elixir 

 

Bind yourself to nothing, seek harmony with all. Then you will be truly free

 

Are not the male and the female like the coal and the flame? If the coal does not know the flame, can either fulfill its destiny?

 

Episode 12: The Soldier

 

The way to do, is to be

 

Episode 13: Empty Pages Of A Dead Book

 

The law of the fast seeks to strengthen the spirit by purifying the body. A man may die from a hunger of the body, but whole nations have fallen from that of the spirit.

 

To break a law of self-discipline, denies justice only to one's self.

 

Episode 14: A Dream Within A Dream

 

Beauty is constant, as is the truth. Seek and find what is the truth. It has been said that a man is three things: What he thinks he is, what others think he is, and what he really is. At what point in time can a man be fixed and frozen, if he is to live and grow? As the lowly caterpillar transforms itself into a finer and more beautiful creature, so, too, a man must change.

 

On victory and defeat: Does not the true value lie with what one does with either?

 

All men have dreams of different types, good and bad. There are the vain dreams, futile, based on baseless hopes. There are the dreams that spur and inspire, based on aspiration to a high ideal. And there are the false dreams, based on lies to oneself or others. A dream is false to you; therefore, a nightmare. And yet, to the artist, a good and true dream, for in that fabrication, he realized his inner ideal of the perfect dragon.

 

Every fella's got a right to be left to his own laughter. Each man carves himself out of eternity, and for that usually dies by his own hand...

 

I do remember I woke this morn as the sun cracked in the dawning east,

And felt as though I had been torn from a night's unfinished feast

Standing alone in the a dim-lit palace as the taster of a King

Allowed to sip the wine-filled chalice, to hear the sounds of church bells ring

The bells of a church I could not enter, come not close, but pass me by

For the gates of Heaven are its center, and the beggar at this banquet, I

Within this flood the visionary gleam

Where is it now, the glory I've acheived?

 

Episode 16: In Uncertain Bondage

 

If in serving, one is served, and in being served, one also serves, are these not the folds of the same garment?

 

A man truly himself will not enrich his own interests and make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without depending on others, yet is not arrogant that he needs no one. The greatest man is nobody.

 

The sage says "That which shrinks, must first expand. That which fails, must first be strong. That which is cast down must first be raised. Before receiving, there must first be giving."

 

Is it not easy to bow and still honor oneself?

 

Episode 17: Night of the Owls, Day of The Doves

 

Consider a field of lillies in seed. The wind which carries a seed plays no favorites. The seeds fall where they will according to the fortunes of wind and weather. Those that fall in fertile soil may be tended and cared for, grow strong and bloom. Those that fall in barren soil will die. Yet some will cling to life in arid places, on hillsides, in deep clefts. And so the traveler, unsuspecting, comes upon a sight of beauty: A single lilly growng amid the rocks. The thoughtful traveler will water this lily in passing, grateful for its strength, its beauty, its tenacity to life. And growing in the rocks as it is, is it not, in its essence, still a lily? And every bit as beautiful?

 

Episode 18: Crossties

 

He who attacks must vanquish. He who defends must merely survive.

 

Episode 20: The Arrogant Dragon

 

When an evil man departs from us, will the earth fall away from under his feet? Will the sun, shining on all else, withhold light and warmth from him? Will water turn to mud when he stops to drink? If sun and earth and water refrain from judgment, who am I to withhold a blanket and a bowl of rice?

 

One man is dead. Another will die. How can this bring honor anywhere?

 

Monkshood, mixed with the white of an egg, is effective for relieving pain in bruises and swelling. Taken internally, it quiets the heart and lungs or causes death. A very powerful poison, its essence is aconite. It can be used to heal, but only when combined with other substances in the most exact proportions. As with all things in nature, it can be used by man for good or evil. Study this herb carefully, for the difference between life and death in it can be measured in the blinking of an eye.

 

Death honors no one

 

Episode 21: The Nature of Evil

 

What is the nature of evil? Do you sometimes feel love, Grasshoper? And joy? Do you sometimes feel pride in what you have accomplished? The threads that make up our human nature are two-ended. There is no capacity for feeling pride without an equal capacity for feeling shame. One cannpt feel joy unless one can also feel despair. We have no capacity for good without an equal capacity for evil. Shall we fear our own humanity? And who can defeat himself? What is evil, but the self, seeking to fulfill its own secret needs. All that is necessary is that we face it and choose.

 

Episode 22:  The Cenotaph Part I

 

Note: This was the second season ender, and m,uch lighter fare than most of the episodes I'd seen so far. The old Chinese guys were not even in the flashbacks, though this hot Asian chick was. Anyway, I did look up cenotaph, so at least I learned something:

 

Cenotaph - a sepulchral monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.

 

Is it not better to look elsewhere than to fix one’s eyes on what one cannot have?

 

Episode 23:  The Cenotaph Part II

 

You have no talent for personal combat whatsoever. To die well, one must live well. Your life cries out to be lived, so you shout well.