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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

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

If you forget yourself, you become the universe.

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

The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech.

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

The menu is not the meal.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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.

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

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 is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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.

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

The mind has first to be attuned to the Unconscious.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 obstacle is the path.

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

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

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

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

The real purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes.