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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The world is its own magic.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.

The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. There is nothing extraordinary or mysterious about Zen. I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring wood: all these I do in Zen.

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

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

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

To live is enough.

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

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

In a mind clear as still water, even the waves, breaking, are reflecting its light.

The true understanding is that the practice itself is enlightenment.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

The mind is like a well-forged sword - it adapts to all situations.

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

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.