The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

When you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

The eye with which I see Buddha is the same eye with which Buddha sees me.

Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.

The obstacle is the path.

Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks.

Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.

The real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change.

The zazen I speak of is not meditation practice. It is simply the dharma gate of joyful ease.

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

Just to be alive is enough.

Each of you is perfect the way you are... and you can use a little improvement.

Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting.

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

All beings by nature are Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddha.

To what shall I compare this life? It is like a boat that left at dawn, leaving no trace.

Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, just as ice and water are of the same substance.

In the spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; in the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, any season is a good season for you.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

When the mind is ready to understand, the truth will come to meet it.

The most important things in our practice are our physical posture and our way of breathing.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

The real purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

What Zen wants us to do is to acquire an entirely new point of view whereby to look into the mysteries of life and the secrets of nature.

The farther you enter into truth, the deeper it is.

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do this in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?

The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.

The world is its own magic.

The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconsciousness is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

If you want to climb a mountain, begin at the top.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.