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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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 menu is not the meal.

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.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Just to be alive is enough.

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

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

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

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