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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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 true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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.

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.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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