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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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.

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

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 true path is not difficult; just avoid picking and choosing.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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?

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

Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads.

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.

Leave your front door and your back door open. Allow your thoughts to come and go. Just don't serve them tea.

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

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

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

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.

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.

When both body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

The dharma wheel turns from the beginning. There is neither excess nor deficiency. The whole universe is moistened with nectar, and the truth is ready to harvest.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

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.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

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

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

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

There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen. Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh 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 you are you, Zen is Zen. Big mind is just big mind.

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

Time passes unhindered. When we make ourselves better, we make the world better.

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

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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 whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.