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

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

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

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

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

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 real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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 menu is not the meal.

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

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.

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.

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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