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.

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.

Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.

Where there is great doubt, there is great awakening; small doubt, small awakening; no doubt, no awakening.

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

The ocean does not reject any water; therefore it is great. The mountain does not select its stones; therefore it is great.

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.

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

To live – is that not enough? To love – is that not everything?

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

The time of the past becomes the present, the time of the present becomes the future, the time of the future becomes the present, and the time of the present becomes the past.

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.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.

At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

Technical knowledge is not enough. One must transcend techniques so that the art becomes an artless art, growing out of the unconscious.

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

Even if you speak of 'understanding,' this understanding is not a matter of knowledge. It is what fills the entire body and mind.

The best way to control people is to encourage them to be mischievous. Then they will be in control in a wider sense.

When dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing.

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

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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

In Zen there must be satori; there must be a general mental upheaval which destroys the old accumulations of intellection and lays down the foundation for a new life.

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

The obstacle is the path.

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

The role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

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

To live is enough.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

This very body is the Buddha. And this very earth the lotus paradise.

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

Just as parents care for their children, you should bear in mind the whole universe.

Zen is a way of life, not a theory or a piece of knowledge to be stored away in our minds.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Where is the place that your original face has not yet emerged?

Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom.

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

Birth and death are neither two things nor one thing. Life is not an appearance, death is not a disappearance.

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

Everybody has the light of Buddha within, but they don't look for it.

As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

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

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

Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear.

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

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

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

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

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

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.