The 1997 collection of quotations Zen Soup: Tasty Morsels of Wisdom from Great Minds East & West by Laurence G. Boldt is thin gruel at best: no index, though the table of contents lists one; pedestrian selections, some badly translated, most without that excuse; poor organization, with near-arbitrary chapter categories; minimal connection to Zen, in spite of the title.

Saving grace? Well, there is plenty of of whitespace between the words. And one proverb near the end of the penultimate chapter leaps out, from Bodhidharma:

Kinda important, worth more thought: the space between. Vacuum defines all that it surrounds. Not soup, but the bowl that once held it.

(cf. No Concepts At All (2001-02-22), DalaiLamaBirthdayGift (2004-08-24), Kenosis (2008-09-21), ...) - ^z - 2012-02-09