Just to be alive is enough.

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

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 true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

The world is its own magic.

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

This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

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

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.

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

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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.

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

The treasure house within you contains everything, and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The menu is not the meal.

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

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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

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.

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 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 role of Zen is neither to stand above life nor to run away from it, but to face it with a spirit of determination.

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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