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

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

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.

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

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.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The world is its own magic.

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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