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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

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

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.

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

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

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

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

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

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

To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things.

When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

The contradiction so puzzling to the ordinary way of thinking comes from the fact that we have to use language to communicate our inner experience, which in its very nature transcends linguistics.

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

When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinions.

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

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

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

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

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

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

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.

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

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

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

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

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

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

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.

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

To live is enough.

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

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

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

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.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

Instead of having a deep understanding of the teaching, we need a strong confidence in our teaching, which says that originally we have Buddha nature.

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

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

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

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

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.