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.

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 way is basically perfect. It is not a matter of practice or enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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

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 only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.