The world is its own magic.

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

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.

The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma.

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

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?

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

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 menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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.

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.

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.