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

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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

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.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.