At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully.

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

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 world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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.

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

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

The obstacle is the path.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.