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

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

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

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

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

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

When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything. When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything.

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

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

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.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.

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

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

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.

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

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.

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

To what shall I compare this life? It is like a boat that left at dawn, leaving no trace.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

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

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

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

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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.

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

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.

Zen proposes its solution by directly appealing to facts of personal experience and not to book-knowledge.

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