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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Buddha and all sentient beings are nothing but expressions of the one mind. There is nothing else.

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?

We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence.

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

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 true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

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

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

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

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The menu is not the meal.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.