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.

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

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

In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

When you practice zazen you should not try to attain anything. You should just sit in the complete calmness of your mind and not rely on anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.