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

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 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.

Buddhas and ordinary beings are not two. Enlightenment and delusion are not different paths.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

The menu is not the meal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The superior person is like water, bringing benefit to all without competing.

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.

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.