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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

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

Your own treasure house contains everything you need; why search outside?

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfection.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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 true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

When you walk in the mist, you get wet.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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